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"Not for Me." Toscanini is sometimes criticized for not playing enough contemporary music, or for choosing, in the current music he does play, the second-rate or derivative. But the Maestro knows his own limits: he will not play music he is not sure he understands (although he has tried Gershwin without much success). Looking at a new score, he seldom says, "This is bad." Instead, he says, "This is not music for me." He does not trust music that does not touch his heart. He feels that he was a pioneer in his youth, and that it is now up to younger conductors to pioneer the music of their generation. His ambition now, he says, is "to come closer to the secrets of Beethoven and a few other eternal masters."
For most music lovers, Toscanini already comes closer to the secrets than anyone before him. He does his best to ignore the legend of his own greatness, but he knows that it is around. At a rehearsal of his all-Debussy concert a month ago, he was flushed with a fever of 102 degrees. His friends tried to persuade the old man not to conduct, but he was insistent. Said he, as he trudged out to the podium: "Sometimes I must act like Toscanini."
* From Hamlet's famous advice to the players: ". . . Do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness."