Written by Fred Kormos

April 27th will be the 101st anniversary of the birth of Italian conductor Guido Cantelli. He was born on that date in 1920 in the northern Italian city of Novara. He studied at the Milan Conservatory and while still in his teens, began what should have been a long and brilliant career as a conductor. That career was interrupted by World War II. Cantelli was drafted into the Italian Army, but his outspoken opposition to Fascism landed him in a German prison camp, where he became so ill due to being overworked and malnourished that he required hospitalization.

He escaped from the hospital and returned to Novara, promptly resuming his musical career after the war. Arturo Toscanini happened to attend a performance at La Scala in Milan conducted by Cantelli, and he was so impressed by the young man that he immediately invited him to guest-conduct a series of concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York. Cantelli also guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, and elsewhere. He signed a contract with EMI to make recordings with the Philharmonia.

In November 1956, La Scala offered Cantelli the post of principle conductor, a great honor for such a young musician, and on November 16th he accepted the offer. But only a week later a flight he was taking from Milan to New York crashed following a stopover in Paris and he was not among the survivors. He was only 36 years old. He made several recordings (the majority in mono as it was only the dawn of stereo recording) so we can enjoy the great Guido Cantelli conducting on KCME’s Back in the Day, Friday, April 30th, just three days after the 101st anniversary of his birth. The show begins at 6:00 p.m. — please tune in!