Beethoven and Toscanini: an anecdote.

[Enrique]

What is Toscanini's secret? Part of it is a sober and practical, prosaic matter: rehearsal time. Toscanini based his career as a conductor on the conviction that it must be possible to regain in the large orchestras of modern times the purity and precision of execution which prevailed in the small virtuoso court ensembles of the eighteenth century. But it would require harder work, many more rehearsals, and more critical scrutiny of the individual player. Toscanini has always insisted with an unshakable determination on practically unlimited rehearsal time. After thirty rehearsals of Beethoven's Mass in D with the orchestra and choir of La Scala, he eventually put away his baton and said quietly: 'Ladies and gentlemen --next year." And that was in 1927, the centenary of Beethoven's death, when all Italy had waited for this performance!

--The Observer: Profile. Toscanini.

A happy New Year to all.

[Sorrano]

Thanks, Enrique, un prospero ano y mucha felicidad!

[Quijote]

Happy New Year to you too, Enrique. Am I mistaken in thinking Tosacanini was a 'cellist? If so, QED.

[Enrique]

Happy New Year to you too, Enrique. Am I mistaken in thinking Tosacanini was a 'cellist? If so, QED.

Very mathematical way of expression! But what does it mean? Honestly. He was bad? He was good. (He was a cellist indeed). I see many people pulling cellists' legs here. What can possibly be the cause? May be the fact that you are one of them? I do not get the point, for it is very difficult to play out of tune (desafinar) in the violoncello.

[Quijote]

Simply that 'cellists understand that their orchestral colleagues need a lot more practice. It is not for nothing that when Brahms was presented a new score by some aspiring young composer he always covered up the upper parts and read first only the bass ('cello and double bass) line. If that seemed 'solid' or 'competent' enough he then went on to read the entire score. In brief : the 'cello line (or lower harmonic part) is the foundation of all music.

[Enrique]

It certainly is. When I was younger, my attention was always attracted towards the bass (cuerda baja). It certainly anticipates harmonic changes. Thanks for the Brahms notice.

[Sorrano]

Simply that 'cellists understand that their orchestral colleagues need a lot more practice. It is not for nothing that when Brahms was presented a new score by some aspiring young composer he always covered up the upper parts and read first only the bass ('cello and double bass) line. If that seemed 'solid' or 'competent' enough he then went on to read the entire score. In brief : the 'cello line (or lower harmonic part) is the foundation of all music.

Which is why I tend to have a more difficult time composing vertically; interest for the lower parts has been so impressed upon my mind as a student that I prefer a more horizontal approach, which explains a bit of my response to the exercise.