Guido Cantelli (April 27, 1920 - November 24, 1956) was a promising Italian orchestral conductor whose career was tragically cut short by his death at the age of 36 in an airplane crash in Paris, France. In the course of his brief career, he had conducted not only in many of the most famous houses of Europe but also in the United States and South Africa as well.
Arturo Toscanini was particularly impressed by him, and he wrote in a note to Cantelli's wife Iris in 1950, after four concerts of Cantelli as guest conductor with the NBC Symphony Orchestra:
I am happy and moved to inform you of Guido's great success and that I introduced him to my orchestra, which loves him as I do. This is the first time in my long career that I have met a young man so gifted. He will go far, very far.[1]
Toscanini, who died in 1957, was never told of Cantelli's death.
Cantelli left a small but valuable legacy of recordings.
Citation
[1]Toscanini, Harvey Sachs, J.B. Lippincott, 1978 ISBN 0-397-01320-5
GuidoCantelli (April 27, 1920 – November 24, 1956) was an Italian orchestral conductor
Born in Novara, Italy, Cantelli was named Musical Director of La Scala, Milan on November 16, 1956, but died one week later.
Maestro Arturo Toscanini was particularly impressed by him, and he wrote in a note to Cantelli's wife Iris in 1950, after four concerts of Cantelli as guest conductor with the NBC Symphony Orchestra:
At age 36, Cantelli was considered a potential successor to Dimitri Mitropoulos as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and was appointed principal conductor at La Scala in November of 1956, when he died in a plane crash at Paris' Orly Airport.
Cantelli emphasized fidelity to the score as written, in terms of tempo and detail, and he downplayed what he regarded as the subjective emotionalism that characterized the work of most conductors of the era.
Cantelli was extremely popular in New York, not only with the NBC Symphony which, it was assumed, he might eventually take over from Toscanini, who had retired in 1954, but also with the New York Philharmonic, which reportedly was considering him as a potential replacement for Dimitri Mitropoulos, their extremely talented but embattled chief conductor.
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