Just Time Out

Arturo Toscanini is still bothered by the knee he injured in a fall 16 months ago. In a recent NBC Symphony concert, he favored the knee by conducting chiefly with his right hand, holding on to the podium railing with his left. Last week, on his doctor's advice, Conductor Toscanini, 83, let it be known that somebody else will conduct his last two NBC concerts, and that he himself is going to take a rest. But he is not retiring.

At his own final concert of the season, members of the small, invited Carnegie Hall audience wanted to break this year's Toscanini-broadcast rule against applause. Toscanini anticipated the thought, saw to it that the audience was given a special warning to stick to the rule. After the hour-long program of Debussy, Respighi and Elgar, he walked in silence, head bowed as usual, to his dressing room.

Friends had suggested to Toscanini that he might continue conducting from a chair, but his reply was a flat no. Instead, he is following his doctor's advice: a course of treatments for his knee in Philadelphia, then a recuperative rest, probably in Italy. His intention: to be back at work next fall.

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