Arturo Toscanini e la direzione d'orchestra tra Ottocento e Novecento

The article focuses on Toscanini’s authoritative skill at the light of conducting emergence during the second half of the 19th century. It examines in particular the role played by repertoire and the related problems of interpretation, developed in Europe at the time of maestro’s early youth. From this point of view some details of his biography are regarded in relationship to previous experiences, namely those of A. Mariani and the unknown French musician M. K. The author suggests also an unexplored musicological topic through the comparison between several handbooks and various Toscanini’s records. Even though it is incorrect to consider at the same extent different fields of sources, as the treatise and the performance, one can admit that the sketches of baton movements can be compared with the rehearsals and concerts recorded by the Italian conductor. Furthermore a short meditation on "Die Meistershaft des Maestro" (1958), an essay of Th. W. Adorno dedicated to Toscanini’s conducting, is joined. The negative judgement of the philosopher, who describes the interpretation of Toscanini as non romantic but also a mechanized manner influenced by the modern mass culture, opens today some hermeneutic perspectives of hearing.