Artur Rodziński was a Polish conductor of symphonic music and opera born in Split, Croatia on January 2, 1892. Rodzinski's many Columbia and Westminster recordings attest to his singular talent with the music of twentieth-century composers.
Background
Artur Rodziński was born at Spalato, Dalmatia (now Split, Yugoslavia), the son of Josef Rodzinski, a Polish-born physician in the Austrian army, and Jadwiga Wiszmiewska. In 1897 the family moved to Lvov, Poland. There, as a teenager, Artur first became seriously interested in music and commenced piano lessons.
Education
Upon graduation from secondary school he attended the University of Lvov, where, at his father's insistence, he studied law and obtained the LL. D. Music remained Rodzinski's first love, however.
Deferred from World War I military service because of a postappendectomy infection, he enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Music, where he obtained a diploma after concentrated piano study with Georg von Lalewicz.
Career
In 1918 he returned to Lvov to undertake a career in music. After eking out a living for several months as a cabaret pianist, Rodzinski obtained a position as accompanist-coach at the Lvov Opera. There, in 1919, he conducted his first opera, Ernani. He was invited to Warsaw in 1920 and served five seasons as principal conductor of the Teatr Wielki Opera House, also appearing as guest conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1925, while vacationing in Poland, Leopold Stokowski engaged Rodzinski as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra commencing in the fall of 1926.
During the 1928-1929 season Rodzinski conducted both the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Grand Opera concerts, and headed the orchestra department of the Curtis Institute of Music for the second consecutive year. In 1929 Rodzinski was named conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held for four seasons. He became director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1933, the same year he received American citizenship. Rodzinski remained in Cleveland for ten seasons, during which time his reputation and that of the orchestra grew apace. On Jan. 31, 1935, Rodzinski directed the Cleveland Orchestra and a cast of Russian singers in the American premiere of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mzensk (later revised as Katerina Ismailova). Following a spectacular repeat performance in New York City on February 5, Rodzinski became a celebrity in the world of music. During the summers of 1936 and 1937 Rodzinski conducted at the Salzburg Music Festival, the first American to do so. Also in 1937, at Arturo Toscanini's request, Rodzinski selected the membership and perfected the ensemble of the National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra. Although Rodzinski continued to enjoy artistic success in his last five Cleveland seasons, he became increasingly restive because of the limitations imposed by an economy-minded orchestra board. Consequently, in 1943 he eagerly accepted the post of musical director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. His four New York seasons represented the apex of Rodzinski's musical career. But Rodzinski's New York tenure was endangered almost from the start because of his long-standing hostility toward orchestra manager Arthur Judson. By 1947 Rodzinski had become so resentful of Judson's alleged interference in the realms of the musical director that he requested the security of a multiyear "no strings attached" contract. A five-year contract was offered Rodzinski, but he deemed its provisions so restraining that he resigned in the middle of the 1946-1947 season to become director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Rodzinski's initial concerts were enthusiastically received in Chicago, but he soon clashed with the orchestra administration over the increased deficit resulting from his ambitious musical plans. Furthermore, he was suspected of feigning illness on several occasions. When he failed to conduct a January 1948 subscription concert, explaining that his physician had ordered complete rest (actually, according to his wife, Rodzinski had suffered a mild heart attack, which he kept secret), the orchestra board promptly announced that he would not be reengaged for the next season. Upon completing the 1947-1948 Chicago season, Rodzinski embarked upon a ten-year guest-conducting odyssey that took him to various American and European music centers; to South America; to Cuba, as head of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana for the 1949-1950 season; and finally, to Italy, where he established residence in 1952. During his European exile Rodzinski conducted both opera and concerts. He enjoyed his greatest success at Florence, where, among other notable performances, he mounted the first production outside the Soviet Union of Prokofiev's War and Peace. In the fall of 1958 Rodzinski returned to America to conduct two performances of Tristan und Isolde at the Chicago Lyric Opera. These were his last public appearances, for the energy expended completely debilitated a body ravaged by a decade of recurrent heart attacks. Rodzinski succumbed shortly thereafter in Boston.
Quotations:
His three-year apprenticeship under Stokowski proved to be of inestimable value: "What a taskmaster and what a hard school, [but] he taught me a lot!"
Membership
member of the ensemble of the National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra
director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Personality
Rodzinski was a striking podium figure, five feet, eleven inches tall, slender, with a profusion of coarse gray hair and myopic brown eyes peering intently through thick-lensed spectacles. A strict disciplinarian constantly in quest of perfection, he enjoyed a deserved reputation as an orchestra builder.
Interests
Music & Bands
Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Richard Strauss.
He was justly renowned as an operatic conductor, of Wagner in particular. Rodzinski's many Columbia and Westminster recordings attest to his orchestral skill with Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Richard Strauss and to his singular talent with the music of twentieth-century composers.
Connections
In 1917 Rodzinski married fellow pianist Ilsa Reimesch; they had one son before being divorced.
On July 19, 1934, he married Halina Lilpop in Warsaw; they had one son.