Abstract

Records

The author says that it was interesting, on a Sunday afternoon, to hear artist Guido Cantelli conduct the New York Philharmonic in the Mozart Divertimento K 287 that orchestral conductor Arturo Toscanini recorded a few years ago. Interesting, that is, to hear how different Cantelli's performance was, and how beautiful in its different way. Some of the fast movements were slower-paced and more easy-going, making possible the outlining of smaller details within the flow of the larger phrases, a flow that had a beautiful and moving lyricism and grace, as against the powerful impulse operating in Toscanini's treatment. This was the difference also in their performances of the slow movement, a beautifully shaped and eloquent vocal aria as Cantelli played it, one to which Toscanini's power imparts a largeness of span and expressive effect, a tension, a grandeur that become overwhelming.