TOSCANINI

21 February 1941 - All Wagner

This benefit performance in Carnegie Hall, featuring Lauritz Melchior and Helen Trabel, caused a sensation among opera lovers. No one ever dreamed of such an Immolation; here Toscanini and Traubel gave a performance which surpasses their later commercial recording. The New York Times review celebrated the “sublimated song, elemental power and monumental lines” of the orchestral pieces and the “shattering climaxes, all balanced and in proportion” which revealed the grandeur of Wagner’s music. The Times tells us that “at the end the whole audience stood for minutes and cheered”. You will too.