Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) was one of the most intelligent, profound, scrupulous, and dynamic performing musicians in history, and the first symphonic conductor to have left recordings of a vast portion of his repertoire. His work as an interpreter was so original and so powerful that it has transformed classical music down to our own day. Generations of conductors have been the beneficiaries of his hard-fought reforms in the opera house and concert hall, and his belief that performers must strive to come as close as possible to revealing composers' intentions remains a golden rule for most of today's finest conductors, instrumentalists, and singers. Toscanini's remarkable talents, including a photographic memory, and his terrible temper when he was working in contrast to his generosity as a human being, made him a legend in musical circles and beyond. During a career that spanned sixty-eight years, he was music director of such institutions as La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the New York Philharmonic, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as a much-sought-after guest conductor of world-renowned symphonies and opera houses. In addition, the powerful personality that allowed him to accomplish his reforms and to pursue his musical ideals led him to stand up to Europe's fascist regimes in the 1930s, becoming an icon of non-partisan political morality. His difficult family life and many romantic entanglements add further layers of fascinating complexity to the Toscanini story. Following the success of his Reflections on Toscanini in 1978, Harvey Sachs has been universally acclaimed as the illustrious musician's leading biographer.

Now, with access to the Toscanini family's previously unavailable archives, plus several thousand pieces of correspondence and more than 100 taped conversations from the Toscanini's final years, Sachs returns with an enhanced retelling of the Toscanini story, replete with previously unknown details from the maestro's life and times. Terrifically engaging and ambitiously in-depth, Toscanini: A New Biography is sure to inform our understanding of this extraordinary figure's consummate musical legacy for years to come.