Many of the recent
Toscanini re-issues have been Carnegie
Hall recordings. Restoration engineers
have tended to shy away from the more
notorious Studio 8H tapes. Rumour holds
that these are all brash, and subject
to all of the limitations of the extremely
dry acoustic for which the studio was
infamous. This disc will go a long way
to dispel these myths which were probably
due to poor transfers to vinyl in days
gone by.
In addition, it is
now well known that Toscanini’s record
producers, being somewhat in awe of
the Maestro were unable to persuade
him to moderate his then extremely rapid
tempi. There is a famous story, told
after his death, that Walter Legge told
him that his tempi were all too extreme.
The conductor was supposed to have said
that he wished his own record producers
had had the courage to talk to him like
that.
On this CD we have
all of the hallmarks of Toscanini at
about this time: aggressive phrasing
and high speeds. What we don’t have
however is the harsh unyielding sound
of the now old vinyl pressings. True,
the acoustic is somewhat drier than
the Carnegie Hall recordings but it
is not in the least unattractive. In
any event the compensation is a ‘no
nonsense’ presentation of the composers’
scores, without an ounce of sentimentality
in sight.
The Haydn 88th
particularly gains from this approach,
and whilst it in no way displaces Furtwängler’s
Berlin Philharmonic recording from 1951,
it gives an altogether different approach
to the score. The Mozart 40th
is in much the same vein with fast speeds
and no lingering. It is well known that
at the time of these recordings, the
NBC Orchestra had just been established
by the NBC to take advantage of the
enormous commercial potential of the
classical music radio concerts. How
things have changed!
After the two symphonies,
there are what could be considered three
short encores. These are all brilliantly
played and show just what a virtuoso
orchestra the NBC ensemble was at its
inception. Apart from two Beethoven
symphonies these are all first recordings
made by the orchestra in Studio 8H.
They were to move to Carnegie Hall in
May 1940, so if you want to hear what
these old recordings sound like do go
ahead. You will be in for some direct,
unfussy performances at an extremely
low outlay, which will impress you greatly.
Of this I have no doubt.
John Phillips
see also
review by Jonathan Woolf
NBC Symphony Orchestra/Arturo Toscanini.
