This CD usefully gathers
together most of the earliest studio
recordings that Toscanini set down with
the newly formed NBC Symphony Orchestra
in 1938 and 1939. Though the recordings
were made in the notorious acoustic
of Studio 8H I don’t find the sound,
at least as transferred here, as dry
or aggressive as some I’ve encountered
from this source.
Toscanini gives a generally
swift reading of the Haydn symphony.
The first movement is strongly propelled
but it doesn’t sound hard-driven to
me. He takes the slow movement broadly,
drawing singing lines from the players,
and from the cello section in particular.
The Menuetto is trenchant and I do wonder
if it isn’t a bit too forceful; it seems
to me that the music lacks charm (a
fatal flaw in Haydn) though the trio
fares better in this respect. The finale
bowls along at a great lick and the
articulation of the NBC players is excellent.
The playing in the
Mozart is again of a high standard,
apart from a couple of cracked horn
notes. In the first movement (in which
the exposition repeat is taken) accents
are sharply observed but there’s also
"give" where appropriate.
Some listeners may feel that the music
is projected too strongly to the point
of being "in your face". I
wouldn’t necessarily say that but perhaps
a degree more relaxation at times would
not have been amiss. The second movement
moves along nicely. Many conductors
take this too slowly for my taste but
Toscanini remembers that the speed of
a true Andante is walking pace and the
music benefits greatly. The Menuetto
is quite brisk while the finale is tremendously
energetic.
I’m not sure to what
extent the Beethoven movements are arranged
in any way for full string orchestra;
the documentation doesn’t cover this
point. In Toscanini’s hands the Lento
is a grave elegy, which is beautifully
phrased and played. I don’t feel that
the Vivace works quite as well in orchestral
guise but Toscanini and his players
make the best possible case for it.
The Paganini does nothing
at all for me as music, I’m afraid,
but it’s well enough played. In the
Rossini overture the Maestro gets virtuoso
playing throughout. He welds the sections
together skilfully and makes the piece
into a miniature tone poem.
The transfers derive
from pre-war U.S. Victor "Gold"
label 78s. Engineer Mark Obert-Thorn
has done an excellent job and I doubt
that these performances have ever been
available in better sound. Toscanini’s
way with Mozart and Haydn may not be
to all tastes, for some find him too
aggressive in this repertoire. I’ve
had the same view of some of his recordings
of such music but I found the performances
here to be direct and bracing and I
enjoyed them. This is an interesting
and recommendable CD that captures the
great conductor at the start of the
last phase of his career.
John Quinn
See also reviews by Jonathan
Woolf and by John
Phillips
NBC Symphony Orchestra/Arturo Toscanini 
