Wanda Toscanini

Wanda Giorgina Toscanini (December 7, 1907 – August 21, 1998) was the daughter of the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini and the wife of Russian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz, whom she married in 1933. Following Horowitz's death in 1989, Wanda bought a 200 year old farm house that she named "Pinci's Acres" (Pinci was Wanda's nickname for Horowitz) in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, and stocked it with American antiques and Horowitz memorabilia. She then divided her time between this home and the New York City residence.

She liked to share stories of her life, which frequently featured her husband and her father. One such story she told was of when WWII was coming to France she and her husband decided to leave Paris and move to the United States. She was amazed that in order to get into the country someone here had to vouch for the famous Horowitz. She also told how Horowitz earned his reputation and did his first major concert performance in Germany. He made a lot of money after that and invested it in stocks and lost over $100,000 in the stock market crash in 1929. He never invested another penny in stocks. She occasionally mentioned her daughter Sonya who died in 1975.

Wanda was buried alongside her husband in the Toscanini family tomb in Milan. In late 2004, vandals broke into the crypt and opened her grave.

Wanda Toscanini appeared in the documentary "Vladimir Horowitz — The Last Romantic" (MGM/UA, 1987), in which she responds to her husband's artistry and reflects on her life in the world of music as daughter and wife of two incomparable musicians.