Artur Bodanzky - Conducting Style

Conducting Style

When he was appointed to his position at Mannheim Bodanzky was praised as a "mature and diligent" conductor" with "only one deficiency: a certain heavy-handedness, a predilection for ritardando". However, later in his career at the Met Bodanzky became "notorious for his rapid tempi, particularly in Wagner". Bodanzky reputedly introduced more cuts in operas he prepared than many other contemporary conductors, and it was sometimes suggested that he was eager to finish the opera in time to play cards. H. L. Mencken criticized his abilities as a symphonic conductor, saying that "he gave an impression of being unfamiliar with what he was there to direct".

Many recordings survive of Bodanzky's Met broadcasts (some of which, for legal reasons, are not available in the USA). These include the very earliest Met broadcasts to survive, from 1933 and 1934, featuring substantial fragments of Frida Leider in Walküre and Tristan. From the recordings, it becomes apparent that Bodanzky's tempi fluctuate greatly, sometimes very fast, sometimes quite slow. In this practice, he is not far from the live contemporaneous recordings of such contemporaries as Albert Coates, Fritz Reiner, and Furtwängler. As to the matter of cuts, it was the almost invariable practice in opera houses outside Bayreuth at that time. Bodanzky compares favorably with both Furtwängler and Reiner in this respect. Later on, as evident from the 1940s Met broadcasts which survive, Erich Leinsdorf made even more substantial cuts. In 1944, Szell gave a broadcast performance of Walküre which has been reissued on CD and which, as regards fast tempi and severity of cuts, is comparable to anything of Bodanzky's.

Frida Leider praises Bodanzky's "outstanding artistry" in her autobiography, written after Bodanzky's death. The influential critic and promoter Samuel Chotzinoff in his book 'Toscanini: An Intimate Portrait' claimed that Toscanini did not rate Bodanzky at all highly even though he was saddened by his death; this conflicts with the claim here that Toscanini recommended Bodanzky to the Met.