In my last entry I explored the topic of the many pieces Toscanini recorded multiple times, which in many cases is a valuable guidepost to what his preferred repertoire consisted of (I say "many" cases as there are a number of exceptions. The Die Meistersinger Prelude was programmed more frequently than any other work in the latter half of Toscanini's career, yet was only recorded once.) Today's topic deals with which composers Toscanini seemed to favor most.
Toscanini did not become a primarily symphonic conductor until the second half of his career, when he began to regularly conduct the New York Philharmonic in the late 1920s. Until then the vast majority of his work was in the opera house. Although his operatic work made him the most famous conductor in the world, he had basically given up working in the theatre by the time he began to record regularly. All that remains of his staged opera performances are a few scattered live recordings from the Salzburg Festival in the 1930s and one concert from La Scala in 1948. By default, his recorded legacy must therefore come down to his work in the concert hall. Here we have ample evidence of where his sympathies lay, as some composers were represented far more than others.
There are few surprises here, as Toscanini seemed to generally prefer the composers who are most programmed today. What's interesting is that there are some works that he programmed with great frequency (Debussy's La Mer, for example) by composers he otherwise gave short shrift to. Toscanini only recorded three other works by Debussy and performed three others in concert (for the same concert in April of 1940). The single work he recorded more than any other was the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, yet Mendelssohn otherwise did not figure prominently in Toscanini's concerts. Outside of the Midsummer Night's Dream excerpts, Toscanini only recorded four other works by Mendelssohn, with concert performances of five others.
I thought it would be interesting to list the composers Toscanini performed most, with the total number of works by that composer that he recorded. This is an entertaining if highly misleading way to determine the breadth of his interest in the composers he performed. The exceptions can probably be explained by a variety of commercial considerations on the part of RCA as well as some unique circumstances of programming.
The composer who was likely deepest within Toscanini was Giuseppe Verdi, yet Verdi's works did not feature prominently in his concert programs. Yet to view this list you would think that Verdi was among the most frequently programmed composers in Toscanini's latter years. This has to do with the fact that RCA issued nearly every performance of a work of Verdi given during Toscanini's years with the NBC Symphony. Of the works that exist in the official discography only the Overture to La forza del destino, Act IV from Rigoletto, the Requiem, Te Deum and the potboiler Hymn of the Nations were given in performances that were not released commercially. Even these pieces were only performed a combined nine times in versions that went unreleased. I suspect Toscanini's reticence to program Verdi's music in concert probably had to do with a reluctance on his part to hear Verdi's music played out of context. RCA nonetheless likely felt they could capitalize on Toscanini's close (and this may be stretching it) personal relationship with Verdi by releasing as many recordings of his music as they could. Fortunately for us, Toscanini gave his approval to most of these recordings.
Mozart is another interesting case, as Toscanini admitted in a conversation with B.H. Haggin that he found Mozart "boring". Excepting the Symphony No. 40 and the concertos, he said that Mozart's music "is always beautiful - but is always the same." Regardless of this, Toscanini ended up recording ten different works by Mozart, more than any composer outside of Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner and Verdi (and tied with Rossini). Mozart has always been a very "safe" composer to program, as he is unlikely to offend any concertgoers, and RCA likely considered his music commercial gold when accompanied by Toscanini's photo on the cover.
All this said, I still find it very interesting which composers ended up having a wide variety of works recorded. It says a great deal about both Toscanini's tastes as a musician and the commercial tastes of the time.
Here is the list of all the composers of whom Toscanini recorded two or more works. As one might expect Beethoven is right at the top, with twenty-four total works. For the purposes of this list I am counting operatic excerpts that were programmed separately as their own works. For example, the Overture and the aria "Quando le sere" from Verdi's Luisa Miller are counted separately, but operas performed in their entirety are considered individual pieces.
Twenty-four works
- Beethoven
Eighteen works
- Verdi
- Wagner
Sixteen works
- Brahms
Ten works
- Mozart
- Rossini
Six works
- Haydn
Five works
- Cherubini
- Mendelssohn
- R. Strauss
Four works
- Berlioz
- Debussy
- Respighi
- Sibelius
- Tchaikovsky
- Weber
Three works
- Schubert
Two works
- Bizet
- Catalani
- Cimarosa
- Franck
- Glinka
- Gluck
- Saint-Saëns
- Schumann
- Shostakovich
- Smetana
- Sousa
- J. Strauss
We're now only three days away from the official beginning of the project. Stay tuned for more.
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