Guido Cantelli reviews

Any recording from Guido Cantelli is precious: killed in an air crash aged 36, just a week after he had been appointed artistic director at La Scala, he was the one young Italian who excited Toscanini. We have Richard Itter to thank for this bootleg of an entire Philharmonia concert, broadcast by the BBC from the Royal Albert Hall in 1953. The sound quality improves as it progresses: Cantelli’s party piece, Rossini’s Semiramide Overture, sizzles with nonchalant panache, but it’s filtered through a loud hiss and intermittent interference.