Beethoven Symphony No. 5, 1st mvt--Arturo Toscanini/NBC Symp

Telecast March 22, 1952 from Carnegie Hall, New York City

for the second movement go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iji Hzh...


from an interview by Robert Stumpf II with Bob Bloom, who played with Toscanini:


I played for him for six years. He yelled at me a lot, but as a father. After awhile I became, from those in the orchestra, possibly closer than anyone else to Toscanini. Away from the podium, he was like a little child. He loved music. In his study, he would show me Puccini's snuff box, Verdi's eye glasses. He treasured these things.

One day I was visiting him and he asked me to stay for lunch. I could tell he was very tired, and we had finished our business, so I told him that I didn't have to stay. I said, "Maestro, you look tired. Why don't you take a nap?"

He said, "I've been up since five o'clock this morning studying this symphony." The symphony that week was Beethoven's Fifth.

I said, "Maestro, how many times have you conducted that?"

He answered, "Oh, hundreds."

I said, "And you're still studying it?"

I loved his answer. He said, "Well, I'm always afraid I may have missed something." This is how he really felt about music.

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