conductors-from-italy

"In Neapolitan tradition, mandolins, guitars and accordions were part of everyday life, just like kitchen utensils."

"What is produced today is mostly modest. Music has become tribal: fewer and fewer elements are used, and songs are monotonous."

"(About the Sanremo Festival) It has gone from being a song festival to a product festival. This is a consequence of the rapid obsolescence of lyrics: once upon a time, an artist dreamed of finding a song that would remain in their repertoire forever. Today, what matters is doing something that works immediately."

"Pippo was powerful, demanding and competent. If he didn't like one of the arrangements, we would go back and write until late at night. [The Sanremo Festival] was his home: just think, one morning I caught him moving a flower box at the theatre entrance."

"(About the song Ti lascio una canzone) Gino wanted to pay tribute to Ornella Vanoni as a seal on their story. I loved the idea: even before it was born, that song already had a life of its own. He wrote the lyrics, I wrote the music. Paoli was like a cat: you never knew whether he was going to scratch you or purr."

"[While witnessing Cantelli conduct for the first time] That's me!"

"He was a great conductor, a true "servant" of music, he was the one who taught us to respect the scores, but he was also a great man, who never used music for self-interest... He was one of the three artists who radically changed the history of musical interpretation. The other two great names are Liszt, for his way of playing the piano, and Paganini for his revolutionary way of playing the violin."

"My dear Maestro, my great friend, come to Fiume d'Italia, if you can. Here today is the most resonant air in the world. And the soul of the people is as symphonic as your orchestra. The Legionaries await the Fighter who once led the warrior chorus."

"Look at him. He is one of your kind, gaunt like you. His head is carved in hard bone, between chin and forehead, with those deep hollows that form between ear and nose when he clenches his lips and jaw, with that frown that brings to mind the wild gaze of a swan beneath the swelling of its beak, with that neck that energy dilates as if to fill it with unspoken commands. Look at him. Look at his hand holding the scepter. His scepter is a wand as light as an elder rod; and it raises the great waves of the orchestra, releases the great torrents of harmony, opens the cataracts of the great river, digs the forces from the depths and carries them to the summit, restrains the tumults and reduces them to whispers, creates light and shadow, creates serenity and storm, creates mourning and jubilation… Who is he then? He is a Chief as I am a Chief, O my people."

"[Arturo Toscanini is] the greatest conductor in the world."

"[Upon learning of the beating of Toscanini by a group of Fascist Blackshirts] I am really happy. It will teach a good lesson to these boorish musicians."

"Every conductor–even those who, like me, were born in Britain and raised in the United States–must sooner or later confront the ghost of Arturo Toscanini."

"He projected the figure of the conductor beyond the stage. Every legend has a surplus, an excess of image. However, when he conducted, he was spare, he knew how to extract the essence from a score without adding any artifice."

"When Toscanini conducted, it was like fate striking, infallible, inexorable. His innate sense of rhythm, his memory, were prodigious. Operas and concerts, he conducted them all from memory, without a score."

"I'm happy to inform you of Guido's great success and that I've brought him into my orchestra, which holds him in high regard, as I do. This is the first time in my long career that I've encountered such a gifted young man."

"Maestro Cantelli was a few years younger than I, but despite this, he exerted on me a special fascination. I listened to his stories, followed him with enthusiasm, and felt proud of this young Italian talent, so famous throughout the world"

"Among musicians, I had a true friend, Maestro Cantelli. He was a young man of particularly noble sentiments."

"He had a clear gesture and beautiful hands, he knew how to firmly control the orchestra and get what he wanted. He didn't need to imitate anyone because his artistic personality was confident and convincing."

"He is one of the greatest conductors."

"[T]he 23 and 24-year-old Guido Cantelli was prepared to sacrifice his life for the moral outrage he felt towards the fascist and Nazi regimes. Speaking personally, I have never been so tested; really, very few (if any) of us have. I stand in awe of his moral strength and conviction. This is my definition of a hero."

"Cantelli was indeed one of the most prodigiously gifted conductors of his generation."

"[F]rom the youngest age Guido imitated his father by “waving his arms about”, and by the age of 10 he was, on occasion, conducting his father’s band."

"[Guido Cantelli,] the gods' lad."

"La Scala is the lover who made me despair the most"

"They ask me what my secret is. My secret is very simple: it consists in having the music performed, note by note, as the author wrote it."

"[After hearing Marian Anderson perform] What I heard today one is privileged to hear only once in a hundred years."

"Everyone here is celebrating me—everyone is raving about me! […] Tonight I have my first concert. It's useless for me to say it, but you can imagine how nervous I am... I'm the eternal beginner. Perhaps the only person who doesn't hold myself in esteem..."

"Every rehearsal is like a concert, and every concert like a debut."

"Qui finisce l'opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto."

"I feel the necessity to tell you for once how much I admire and honor you. You are not only the unmatchable interpreter of the world’s musical literature [...] In the fight against the fascist criminals, too, you have shown yourself to be a man of greatest dignity [...] The fact that such a contemporary exists balances many of the delusions one must continually experience from the species minorum gentium."

"1909, the Edwardian golden days. Genteel civilization had come to England, the continent, and the eastern United States. New York rivaled London and Paris as one of the great metropolises of the world. Albert Einstein had expounded his theory of relativity back in 1905, and science had brought us the wonders of the modern world. Culture and refinement had arrived on the east coast of America. Caruso was singing Pagliacci at the Met. Arturo Toscanini was conducting. The Barrymores were performing and a Ziegfeld girl was the rage."

"Angelo Mariani is nowadays considered, in addition to being a very distinguished violin player and a very elegant composer of chamber pieces, the most excellent orchestra conductor that Italy has."

"If it is legitimate to say, with a Gallic term, that a singer or an actor, called to interpret a new production on stage, become in a certain way creators of it, there is no one better than the concertmasters and orchestra directors of a musical score, this illustrious title belongs. [...] In this respect, the master concertmaster and conductor Cav. Angelo Mariani deserves, first in Italy, the title of creator."

"I had the opportunity to follow Mariani in his artistic wanderings for a few years, and I was able to convince myself of the omnipotent charm he exercised on the orchestra and of the prodigious effect he had on the performance. The great strength of intellect and of heart that constituted his beautiful artistic personality manifested itself immediately at the first rehearsal. As soon as he stepped onto the director's stool, Mariani already knew exactly the merits and defects of his orchestra. (Gino Monaldi)"

"Angelo Mariani was considered at that time the prince director, the genius director! The Italian orchestra, under him, had in fact transformed. Before Mariani, the conductors, even the most talented, had limited themselves to obtaining accuracy, balance, intonation from the orchestra, i.e. the qualities indispensable for a good performance. With him the orchestra suddenly elevated itself to the mission of interpreter, of true collaborator of the author's thoughts and feelings. (Gino Monaldi)"

"Angelo Mariani was by chance the first in Italy who, coupling the office of concertmaster with that of orchestra director, taught by example the best means of obtaining, in great musical performances, true concert unity ."

"The musician who has a picture in front of him has an interpretative funnel and must be careful what happens in the history and images. The other thing is the viewer’s attention. When they are on TV they can easily switch channel. This requires put both the assembly of the story and how the story is told, captures the viewer’s attention constantly."

"[Salieri] did not harbor a grudge against Mozart, who eclipsed him; but whenever he spotted a weak point in Mozart he drew his students' attention to it. Thus one day, when I was alone with Salieri, he divulged that Mozart had completely misinterpreted the final scene of the first act in "Titus." Rome is burning; the whole population is in revolt; the music ought to rage and be tumultuous; but Mozart chose a slow, solemn tempo and rather expressed dread and horror. I did not let Salieri confuse me, and still agree with Mozart's views. As far as I know, Salieri missed only one performance of "Don Juan." This work must have interested him particularly; but I have no idea whether he ever commented about it enthusiastically."

"I feel that the end of my days is drawing near; my senses are failing me; my delight and strength in creating songs are gone; he, who was once honored by half of Europe, is forgotten; others have come and are the objects of admiration; one must give place to another. Nothing remains for me but trust in God, and the hope of an unclouded existence in the Land of Peace."