Arturo Toscanini remembers anniversaries. Last week, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brahms's death, he led his NBC Symphony Orchestra through an all-Brahms program. It was played with such precision and such cohesive beauty that listeners had a hard time believing that next week Toscanini will celebrate an anniversary of his own: his 80th birthday.
The studio audience in Manhattan's Radio City (which had scrambled for tickets—free but hard to get) saw a little, erect man in a dark suit coming on stage after the show was already on the air. He led with an economy of gesture; only occasionally did he...
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