When I was young, I kissed my first woman and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. Believe me, never since have I wasted any more time on tobacco.

In the following decade he consolidated his career in Italy entrusted with the world premieres of Puccini's La bohème and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. They worked together a number of times and recorded Brahms' second piano concerto and Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto with the NBC Symphony for RCA. It was later issued by RCA Victor in the 1967 centennial boxed set tribute to Toscanini which included a number of NBC broadcasts never released on discs.

He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century renowned for his intensity his perfectionism his ear for orchestral detail and sonority and his photographic memory. Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-54) and this led to his becoming a household name (especially in the United States) through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. Arturo Toscanini (Italian: [arˈtuːro toskaˈniːni]; March 25 1867 – January 16 1957) was an Italian conductor.