Photo credit: Donatella Mulvoni
We’re not sure if Amtrak regular Vice President Joe Biden was caught up in the birthday bash of legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867- 1957) held at Union Station in Washington, DC – but hundreds of others were. The celebrated chamber orchestra Cameristi della Scala (Milan) held the free concert which was sponsored by Lane Construction.
Union Station
Pietro Salini, Chairman of Lane Industries Inc. – a leading U.S. construction company specializing in the transportation, infrastructure and energy industries – produced the extraordinary event.
Cameristi della Scala was founded in 1982 and is formed by musicians from the legendary orchestra of Teatro alla Scala in Milan (Italy), one of the most important opera houses in the world. It is acclaimed worldwide for its sensitive interpretations of the chamber orchestra repertory.
Pietro Salini
Toscanini’s story is a cosmopolitan one, the tale of man who took his art and his profession across the world and arrived in the United States. From 1908 to 1915 he conducted nearly 500 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, and from 1928 to 1936 he led the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Finally, from 1937 to 1954, he led the ensemble created especially for him, the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Toscanini was more than just a musician of genius who brought the level of orchestral playing to new heights of precision and interpretative power and helped make American orchestras the equal of their European counterparts; he was an ardent defender of democracy at a time when it was under attack by the forces of totalitarianism, both in the country of his birth and elsewhere. He is especially remembered for his solidarity with Jewish musicians who were persecuted or forced into exile, and famously led the first performance of the newly formed Palestine Symphony Orchestra in 1936.
Master of Ceremonies NBC’s Barbara Harrison
A concert at the Library of Congress and another at Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City followed. Both events were preceded by the presentation of Toscanini, the Maestro: A Life in Pictures, edited by Marco Capra with a preface by conductor Antonio Pappano, and published by Rizzoli.
Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with Fabio Dal Boni at Cafe Milano to discuss the life of Toscanini and the interaction of Lane Construction:
