Richard Wagner, Prelude to Act III of his opera "Lohengrin"

Arturo Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, at Studio 8-H, New York City.

from TV broadcast of March 20, 1948.

Toscanini (born 1867) first performed "Lohengrin" with his school friends in Professor Carini's violoncello school at the conservatory of Parma.

He collected a few nicknames at school--"genius" and also "scissors" due to his sometimes sharp criticism.

Toscanini received excellent grades and left the school in 1885. The conservatory kept and display a few orchestral scores, plus a romance for vocalist and piano, he composed while there.