Maestro Arturo Toscanini

Classical Music / Conductor's Datebook: March 25

Arturo Toscanini, Conductor, Uncompromising Perfectionist

Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), born March 25, was an Italian conductor and considered one of the greatest musical interpreters of all time. This brilliant musician nicknamed "old man" continued conducting into his nineties, ever intense and dedicated to his art.

Acclaimed classical music interpreter of the late 19th and 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory.

At various times, he was music director of La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.



Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-54), that led to his becoming a household name especially in the United States, through his radio and television broadcasts and many more recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. 

Toscanini was renowned for his accomplishments as conductor of the Metropolitan  Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the NBC Symphony, which he led for 17 years. He was a champion of Richard Wagner's music, whose operas he introduced to his Italian countrymen at La Scala. The operas of Giacomo Puccini also elicited his devotion.  
 

Maestro Toscanini died on January 16, 1957.

 

 

Suggested Reading:

 

Toscanini, The Recorded Legend. Classical Notes. Peter Gutmann. Accessed March 25, 2013. 

Trivia:
The 25^th of March is also the birthday of Bela Bartok, famous Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist. Toscanini is 14 years older than Bartok.

Image credit:

Arturo Toscanini.Wikipedia / Public Domain

 

Video Credit:

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 "Choral" - NBC Symphony Orchestra, Toscanini (3 April 1948). Telecast: 3 April, 1948 at NBC Studio 8-H, New York City. YouTube, uploaded by 1Furtwangler. Accessed March 25, 2017.


Resources:

• Arturo Toscanini.  NPR.org/artists/89059349/arturo-toscanini.  Accessed March 29, 2013
• Arturo Toscanini. www.Biography.com.  Accessed March 25, 2017. 
• Sadie, Stanley, Ed. The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music.  London: Macmillan, 1994.

(c) March 29, 2013. Tel.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved. 

Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen

Scientists Datebook : March 27

German physicist Röntgen discovered X-Ray

Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (1845-1923), German physicist was born March 27, 1845.  While teaching at Wuerzburg University in 1895, he discovered X-rays, for which he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

Röntgen's (or Roentgen) name  is mainly associated with his discovery of the rays that he called X-rays. In 1895 he was studying the phenomena accompanying the passage of an electric current through a gas of extremely low pressure.  Although previous works have already been carried out, his work on cathode rays led him to the discovery of a new and different kind of rays. Röntgen also worked on the heats of gases, in particular, the heat conductivity of crystals and electricity.

Moore's Law

Moore's Law Prediction of Computer Chips Performance

According to Moore’s Law, the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles every 18 months or so. This prediction was conceived by Gordon Moore, co-founder and former chairman of Intel Corporation.

When Intel's co-founder predicted in 1965 that as the number of transistors on a chip doubles, performance also doubles, he thought it would hold true for about 10 years. Well, it's way past the millennium and we know that the computer chips have been shrinking, with increased performances in computers.

Gordon Moore is the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation, famous for Moore's Law. Under him, Intel introduced the world's first single chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004 invented by Intel engineers. Born in San Francisco on January 3, 1929, Gordon Earle Moore earned a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1950 and a Ph.D. in chemistry and physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1954.

Maria Malibran, Mezzo-Soprano

At the age of 17, on June 7, 1825, mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran makes her debut in London. She studied with her father Manuel Garcia, whose harsh treatment prompted her to marry in order to escape. Her voice has been described with its range, power and flexibility as extraordinary. Malibran is closely associated with the operas of  Rossini. 

Brief Profile

Maria Malibran (March 24, 1808 – September 23, 1836), the older sister of Pauline Viardot, another well-known singer, was one of the most famous opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death at age 28.

Beniamino Gigli sings Mozart Dalla sua pace

Mozart Interpreters / Tenor Benjamino Gigli

Gigli sings "Dalla sua pace" from Mozart Opera Don Giovanni

Beniamino Gigli  (March 20, 1890 - November 30, 1957), was a prominent Italian opera singer in his time, a famous tenor. Considered to be one of the finest tenors in recorded history of music, he was best known for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique.  He rose to international prominence after the death of the famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso in 1921.  Although he was often compared to Caruso, they were in fact different in a sense that he was known for his honey-toned lyricism while Caruso had a bigger more "heroic" voice.




Video Credit:
Beniamino Gigli sings from Mozart Opera DonGiovanni, "Dalla sua pace" London 1939. Youtube, uploaded by operbathosa. Accessed February 1, 2013

References:

All Music.  Accessed February 1, 2013.

"Beniamino Gigli". History of the Tenor.  Accessed February 1, 2013.

Music Web.  Accessed February 1, 2013.

Frédéric Joliot-Curie

Frédéric Joliot-Curie, French physicist, shared Nobel Prize in physics with wife Irène Joliot-Curie,  for artificial radioactivity.

Frédéric Joliot ( (19 March 1900 – 14 August 1958) was born in Paris and graduated from the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris.  In 1925 he became an assistant to Marie Curie at the Radium Institute. He fell in love with her daughter Irène Curie, and married in 1926. At the insistence of Marie,  Joliot-Curie obtained a second baccalauréat, a bachelor's degree, and a doctorate in science, doing his thesis on the electrochemistry of radio-elements.

Frédéric and Irène changed their surnames to Joliot-Curie after they married on October 4, 1926 in Paris, France. Eleven months later, their daughter Hélène, was born, who would also become a noted physicist. Their son, Pierre, born in 1932, was a biologist.  Frédéric Joliot-Curie devoted the last years of his life to the creation of a centre for nuclear physics at Orsay, where his children were educated.

History of Cars

History of the Automobile  at a Glance

On the road there are now more than half a billion cars worldwide, and perhaps, two or three ones are built every second. There is an enormous variety of motor transport to all kinds of vehicles that can be driven, and motorbikes that can reach great speeds. However, all need brakes, driven by an engine (or motor) and most need gears to control the car's engine.

The Early Automobiles

The first petrol-powered automobile was made in 1885 by German engineer Karl Benz, who developed his own version of the petrol engine and used it to power a three-wheeled carriage.

 

1885 Three-Wheeled Benz Patent Motorwagen

The prototype of today's car was developed in France by  René Panhard and Émile Lavassor in 1891, when they mounted a Gottlieb Daimler petrol engine in the front of their vehicle. Daimler patented his water-cooled engine in 1885.

Until 1898, when Louis Renault invented the drive shaft, engine power was transferred to the drive wheels via a chain, as on bicycles.

Antonio Vivaldi

Classical Music Composers Datebook: March 4

Baroque Composer famous for The Four Seasons

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741), was one of the most prolific composers during his time. Several of his concerti were transcribed by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote symphonies, sonatas, and over 400 concerti, including the famous The Four Seasons for violin and orchestra. He also wrote operas and sacred music.

Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4, 1678, and ordained as a priest in 1703, commonly known as "the red-haired priest" or il prete rosso. He was associatead with a girls' orphanage, also in Venice, for which he wrote oratorios and instrumental music.

Vivaldi's The four Seasons (Full), YouTube, uploaded by avrilfan2213. Accessed March 4, 2013.