Arturo Toscanini used this baton to conduct Vladimir Horowitz (his son-in-law) and the Swiss Festival Orchestra in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in Lucerne on August 29, 1939. Just three days later, German troops invaded Poland, beginning World War II. Toscanini and Horowitz both departed for the United States, and did not perform again in Europe until after the war had ended.