Conducting the Wind Orchestra: Meaning, Gesture, and Expressive Potential
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Conducting the Wind Orchestra: Meaning, Gesture, and Expressive P ...

Chapter 1:  Conducting in Theory and Practice
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Arturo Toscanini was often criticised for being too rigid in his interpretations. David Wooldridge cites Edward Robinson’s 1930 review in the American Mercury:

Toscanini has the single, phenomenal capacity for maintaining a persistent tempo with the mechanical rigidity of a metronome. This has the decided effect of ruining an orchestra which achieved real greatness under Willem Mengelberg, for it forces the men into a strait-jacket of precision, and eliminates all spontaneity and expression in performance. By way of substitution for these wholly admirable qualities, Toscanini’s only demand is that the notes must be clear, in tune, and observant of any expression marks that happen to be present. Beyond that he asks nothing—and, I may add, gets it.22

Virgil Thomson writes of Toscanini, “what he does not do is personalise his interpretations. He adds a great deal of excitement to any piece, but that excitement is of a purely auditory and cerebral, rather than an expressive character”.23

However, are these assessments of Toscanini’s conducting fair or accurate? It may be more helpful to understand Toscanini through those who worked directly with him. NBC Symphony bassist, David Walter, recalls Toscanini’s respect for the score: “The printed score didn’t tell you everything; but Toscanini believed it was what you had to start with; and he made you think of the exact meaning of the words you found there”.24 However, to Walter’s recollection, Toscanini thought that this discovery should be carried out with flexibility and imagination. While Toscanini professed to be in service to the score, he nevertheless personalised his interpretations in other ways and used Weingartner’s alterations of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony in performance. This suggests that whilst Toscanini’s approach may have appeared to be objective, he, nevertheless, was not afraid to alter the score when it did not fit with his convictions.