According to Arturo Toscanini, ‘any asino can conduct, but to make music is difficile’.
According to Arturo Toscanini, ‘any asino can conduct, but to make music is difficile’. The technical side of conducting did not appeal to Carlo Maria Giulini, the subject of Thomas Saler’s highly illuminating biography. He was an immensely spiritual man, ‘an old-fashioned poet in a world of ego- maniacs and prosaic technicians’ in the words of Martin Bernheimer. In many ways the two maestri were polar opposites, Giulini (who died in 2005) being a gentle aristocratic in demeanour, while Toscanini behaved like an irascible bulldog.
Giulini’s spirituality was certainly not wishy-washy and Saler indicates that the themes of his religion — ‘that we are uplifted by suffering; it is only through giving that we receive’ — permeated his performances. ‘He exuded an almost saintly aura which sooner or later was transmitted to his audiences’ , wrote Donald Henahan in the New York Times.
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