Naxos has collated
Toscanini’s first NBC recordings, made
in Studio 8-H between March 1938 and
April 1939. The results may surprise
those unfamiliar with his art, not only
inasmuch as the repertoire is familiar
from his earlier NYPSO recordings (of
which these NBC ones were in pretty
direct emulation) but also because of
the air of geniality and easy-going
lyricism that runs throughout. Toscanini
was an under-rated Haydn conductor and
his G major Symphony is an example of
his relaxed and affectionate insight
into the repertoire. The first movement
is smilingly fluent and the accents,
maybe surprisingly, are not at all trenchant.
Similarly the fortissimo outbursts in
the second movement are strongly calibrated
and the Minuet plays up the rusticity
well. The basses make their presence
felt (aided by 8-H’s notorious clarity)
and though it’s not the wittiest traversal
on record - wit was not much his forte
- Toscanini does give due weight to
the pedal (an open fifth) underscoring
the oboe’s line.
All this and more applies
to the G minor of Mozart. It’s as if
his antipode, Furtwängler, had
changed the conductor’s name on the
record labels. The opening is leisurely,
though the dynamics are strong (though
never trenchant) with finely graded
crescendi and diminuendi. The Andante
is rather elegant with a rather pomposo
bass line and altogether more rococo
than one might have expected from Toscanini.
One of the faults in the recording is
a bit of spread in the horns in the
Minuet, taken with a heavy clip. The
Beethoven shows off his new orchestra’s
string section but there are moments
when 8-H sabotages the Rossini – especially
the percussion.
The transfers have
dealt well with the problematic acoustic;
no semblance of added warmth has been
added and the copies used were Victor
"Gold" pressings. Mark Obert-Thorn
has retained a certain degree of surface
noise but it’s perfectly acceptable.
Jonathan Woolf
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NBC Symphony Orchestra/Arturo Toscanini 
