306 PART 3 | FROM WORLD WAR I THROUGH WORLD WAR II
members of the general public also supported them. And as orchestras thrived,
conductors emerged as star performers.
Like other performers, conductors were publicly defi ned as charismatic
artists. Yet conductors also had to face tough intellectual and aesthetic issues.
Were modernist composers the legitimate heirs of Beethoven and Wagner?
Would programming their “revolutionary” new works be worth the risk of los-
ing public support for symphony orchestras? Did American composers deserve
a larger place on concert programs? Questions like these, debated by musicians
and critics, were far from academic ones for conductors, who based their pro-
gramming on the answers. The careers of three illustrious conductors who led
major orchestras during the fi rst half of the century—Arturo Toscanini, Serge
Koussevitzky, and Leopold Stokowski—show that these questions could be
answered in different ways.
The Italian-born Toscanini (1867–1957) fi rst came to the United States in 1908
as principal conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, a post he held until 1915, when
he returned to Italy. A worldwide traveler and performer, he directed both La
Scala opera house in Milan and the New York Philharmonic until his disgust
with the Fascist takeover of the Italian government caused him to leave Italy and
make the United States his permanent home. In 1937 the National Broadcasting
Company, which operated one of the country’s largest radio networks, created
an orchestra expressly for Toscanini, now seventy years old. And from then until
he retired in 1954, he conducted the NBC Symphony in concerts, in radio and
television broadcasts, and on recordings.
Toscanini’s reputation outstripped that of any other classical musician of his
day. He was sometimes proclaimed the “greatest conductor of all time,” and the
promotional forces behind the NBC Symphony helped spread that message. In
performance, Toscanini was noted for his energy, the command he brought to
the podium, his demands for perfection, and his musical memory. Adding to
the legend were his abiding hatred for political fascism and his towering rages
when rehearsals went badly. Toscanini conducted the music of virtually every
major classical and romantic composer as well as a smattering of works by such
modern masters as Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Serge
Prokofi ev.
Serge Koussevitzky (1874–1951) began conducting in his early thirties. He left
his native Russia after World War I and settled in Paris, forming an orchestra that
included in its programs new scores by French and Russian composers, includ-
ing Prokofi ev and Stravinsky. In 1924 he was named conductor of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1949. Aaron Copland, whose music
he championed, later wrote that Koussevitzky combined skill on the podium
with “his passion for encouraging whatever he felt to be new and vital in con-
temporary music.” That included works by living American composers such as
Roy Harris, Walter Piston, Samuel Barber, and William Schuman, not to mention
commissions of works by Stravinsky and other leading Europeans. In the sum-
mer of 1940 the Berkshire Music Center opened at Tanglewood, a Massachusetts
estate, with Koussevitzky as director and Copland as assistant director. In later
years, contemporary composers including Paul Hindemith and Olivier Mes-
siaen taught there as guests. Koussevitzky has been praised for the emotional
power he brought to performances, especially of Russian music and the music of
French composers such as Debussy.K Serge Koussevitzky
(1874–1951), conductor
of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra from 1924 to
1949, in action.Arturo Toscanini172028_13_305-331_r3_ko.indd 306 23/01/13 8:39 PM