Toscanini Conducting Sibelius 4th

I'd read somewhere

Maestro played the work once with NBC in April of 1940, and prepared it twice with the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, once in 1931 and again (for a single performance) in April of 1934. Neither of these readings exists in recorded sound, sad to say. Quick research indicates that if he played it elsewhere, he did NOT play it in Austria with the VPO, in London with the BBC or the Philharmonia, in Palestine with the Palestine SO., at Lucern in the music festival there or with LaScala after the War. The story, if it is true, would seem to apply to the Philharmonic readings of 1931. Given that the work was composed in 1911, it is also possible that he could have prepared it with the LaScala Orchestra in the period following World War I or while he was Music Director at LaScala in the 1920s. I know he did a Beethoven cycle with La Scala in, I believe, 1926 or '27 (a few rehearsal bit of which ARE extant). He also appeared with the Stockholm Philharmonic in the mid 1930s, but of the Sibelius 4th as a program choice there, I am unsure.

Gene

Gene

To be clear, the NBC performance has been issued at least on LP, ATRA-3006.

Gene,

Thanks for all the information. Could Toscanini have conducted the Sibelius 4th at the Met, since he started conducting concerts there in 1913 in addition to his operatic efforts? Though this might seem unlikely, it would fit Layton's implied timeline, since he mentions mainly performances from when the piece was new. Just a thought.