Editing Arturo Toscanini (section)

==Television==
Arturo Toscanini was one of the first conductors to make extended appearances on [[live television]]. Between 1948 and 1952, he conducted ten concerts telecast on NBC, including a two-part concert performance of Verdi's complete opera ''Aida'' starring [[Herva Nelli]] and [[Richard Tucker (tenor)|Richard Tucker]], and the first complete telecast of Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]]. All of these were [[simulcast]] on radio. These concerts were all shown only once during that four-year span, but they were preserved on [[kinescope]]s.<ref>Harvey Sachs, ''Toscanini''</ref>

The telecasts began on March 20, 1948, with an all-[[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] program, including the Prelude to Act III of ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]''; the overture and bacchanale from ''[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]''; "Forest Murmurs" from ''[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]''; "Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey" from ''[[Götterdämmerung]]''; and "The Ride of the Valkyries" from ''[[Die Walküre]]''. On the very same day that this concert was telecast live, conductor [[Eugene Ormandy]] also made his live television concert debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/ormandy/usher.html |title=Penn Special Collections – Ormandy/Usher |publisher=Library.upenn.edu |access-date=November 1, 2012}}</ref> They performed [[Carl Maria von Weber|Weber]]'s overture to ''[[Der Freischutz]]'' and [[Rachmaninoff]]'s Symphony no. 1, which had been recently rediscovered.<ref name="upenn1">{{cite web|url=http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/music/ormandy/first_concert.html |title=The First Televised Orchestra Concert |publisher=Library.upenn.edu |access-date=November 1, 2012}}</ref> The Ormandy concert was telecast by rival network CBS, but the schedules were arranged so that the two programs would not interfere with one another.<ref name="upenn1"/>

Less than a month after the first Toscanini televised concert, a complete performance by the conductor of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was telecast on April 3, 1948. On November 13, 1948, there was an all-[[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] program, including the [[Double Concerto (Brahms)|Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra in A minor]] (Mischa Mischakoff, violin; Frank Miller, cello); ''Liebeslieder-Walzer'', Op. 52 (with two pianists and a small chorus); and ''Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor.'' On December 3, 1948, Toscanini conducted [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s [[Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)|Symphony No. 40 in G minor]]; [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]]'s ''Symphonic Variations''; and Wagner's original overture to ''Tannhäuser''.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

There were two Toscanini telecasts in 1949, both devoted to the concert performance of Verdi's ''[[Aida]]'' from studio 8H. Acts I and II were telecast on March 26 and III and IV on April 2. Portions of the audio were rerecorded in June 1954 for the commercial release on LP records. As the video shows, the soloists were placed close to Toscanini, in front of the orchestra, while the robed members of the [[Robert Shaw Chorale]] were on risers behind the orchestra.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

There were no Toscanini telecasts in 1950, but they resumed from [[Carnegie Hall]] on November 3, 1951, with [[Carl Maria von Weber|Weber]]'s overture to ''[[Euryanthe]]'' and Brahms' [[Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 1]]. On December 29, 1951, there was another all-Wagner program that included the two excerpts from ''[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]'' and ''[[Die Walküre]]'' featured on the March 1948 telecast, plus the Prelude to Act II of ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]''; the Prelude and Liebestod from ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]''; and "Siegfried's Death and Funeral Music" from ''[[Götterdämmerung]]''.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

On March 15, 1952, Toscanini conducted the Symphonic Interlude from [[César Franck|Franck]]'s ''Rédemption''; [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]]'s ''[[En saga]]''; [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]'s "Nuages" and "Fêtes" from ''[[Nocturnes (Debussy)|Nocturnes]]''; and the overture of [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]]'s ''[[William Tell (opera)|William Tell]]''. The final live Toscanini telecast, on March 22, 1952, included Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 5]], and [[Ottorino Respighi|Respighi]]'s ''[[Pini di Roma|Pines of Rome]]''.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The NBC cameras were often left on Toscanini for extended periods, documenting not only his baton techniques but his deep involvement in the music. At the end of a piece, Toscanini generally nodded rather than bowed and exited the stage quickly. Although NBC continued to broadcast the orchestra on radio until April 1954, telecasts were abandoned after March 1952.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

As part of a restoration project initiated by the Toscanini family in the late 1980s, the kinescopes were fully restored and issued by RCA on VHS and [[laser disc]] beginning in 1989. The audio portion of the sound was taken, not from the noisy kinescopes, but from 33-1/3 rpm 16-inch transcription disc and [[high fidelity]] audio tape recordings made simultaneously by RCA technicians during the televised concerts. The hi-fi audio was synchronized with the kinescope video for the home video release. Original introductions by NBC's longtime announcer [[Ben Grauer]] were replaced with new commentary by [[Martin Bookspan]]. The entire group of Toscanini videos has since been reissued by Testament on DVD, with further improvements to the sound.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}