Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Conductor who assisted Toscanini and studied at the Vienna State Academy.
On the island
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:14Did you hear a lot of music as a child?
Oh yes, indeed. Um not perhaps uh the same kind of music which we have ... a very great variety of music from an orchestra in a pavilion in an outdoor cafe. I listened to about every conceivable kind of music. I stood there in fascination and looked at all the musicians. And that was perhaps one of the one of the greatest musical impressions of my earlier childhood.
Presenter asks
1:10How far were you into your studies when you decided that it was conducting that interested you most?
Oh, I was quite far into my studies I started uh working ... when I was about fifteen, and when I went actively after conducting experience, I was ... better than nineteen.
Presenter asks
1:33When you left the Academy, was there plenty of work about for you?
None at all. Uh the correct career for a person who was embarking upon conducting was to go through the smaller opera theatres of Germany. But Germany for me was by 1933, when I graduated from the academy, already firmly and tightly closed. And Austria had really nothing to offer.
Presenter asks
3:54Was [Toscanini] such a difficult man to work for as the legends make out?
He could not abide stupidity. But when he saw anybody who was in his mind and in his soul an artist ... First of all, he was not pedantic. He was not a literal uh interpreter. His portrait will still have to be written.
Presenter asks
6:03Some of the senior members of the company weren't very happy about such a young man being in charge [at the Met].
I don't think it has anything to do with the youth. I think it had something to do that that one of these great members of the company had her own idea who the junior conductor should be. And I'm tempted to give you perhaps my own definition of what is a prima donna. A prima donna is a great singer. Who manifests her greatness not only in her great singing, but in her ability to determine who shall be the conductor.
“He could not abide stupidity. But when he saw anybody who was in his mind and in his soul an artist, first of all, he was not pedantic. He was not a literal uh interpreter. His portrait will still have to be written.”
“A prima donna is a great singer. Who manifests her greatness not only in her great singing, but in her ability to determine who shall be the conductor.”
“I think that we musicians should stick to music. And if you are permanently affiliated with an organization, you are faced every day, at least it is my experience in America, you are faced every day with another problem which has nothing whatsoever to do with music.”