It could be argued that Arturo Toscanini was one of
the first ‘authenticists’ eschewing the grotesque distortions
and mannered excesses of bastardised interpretation. Yet Toscanini’s
‘authenticist’ approach to Beethoven is not small-scale and
effete as we often hear with our effeminate ‘period’ conductors
today. What makes Toscanini so unique and compelling is his
strict adherence to the score whilst igniting the music with
drama and tension. This is evident in his tough, direct and
intense 1938 NBCSO performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3
‘Eroica’. Toscanini conducted the ‘Eroica’ more often than any
other symphony and each performance was a unique interpretation
as if he were always conducting the score for the first time.
This lithe, sinuous 1938 performance is slightly broader than
his tauter and more pronounced 1939 account which completely
differs again from his weightier and more spacious 1949 recording
issued on RCA Red Seal (BMG: 74321 55835 2). Toscanini was famed
for his constantly evolving interpretation of the Eroica, none
of which could be described as ‘definitive’ but all of which
demand to be heard.
This 1938 mesmerising performance gripped me from beginning
to end so relentless was its forward thrusting drive. The playing
of the NBCSO is crisp and alert with some exquisite woodwind
solos in the Funeral March and firm punctuated timpani throughout.
All four movements are perfectly integrated making the music
sound like one colossal and unified movement. It is impossible
to have a favourite Toscanini ‘Eroica’ as each interpretation
is unique. The late cultural critic Edward Said commented on
the unique and extraordinary musical experience of listening
to Toscanini’s Eroica and was fascinated by the Maestro’s sheer
will to control music and musicians: "What Toscanini
seems to me to be doing ... is trying to force into prominence,
or perhaps enforce, the utterly contrary quality of the performance
occasion, its total discontinuity with the ordinary, regular
or normative processes of everyday life.”
Toscanini stated that he always had great difficulty
in conducting the Coriolan Overture yet here the Maestro
has a masterly control over metre, dynamics and balance in his
last 1953 performance of the score. This intense and dramatic
example is by far the finest of his seven accounts of the overture
with the NBCSO - as well as being nearly a minute longer.
The 1948 NBCSO Leonore
No. 3 is issued here for the first time and although a welcome
edition to the Toscanini discography the sound comes across
as cloudy and rather dry with the timpani and brass coming across
as too muffled. That said, it is a direct, noble and broad interpretation
and a superior account to his 1945 RCA recording.
Whilst Music & Arts dub this re-issue a “State
of the art 2004 restoration” their first issue of the 1938 Eroica
released in 1987 did not have the crackling distortions in the
climaxes even if the 2004 restoration sounds cleaner and better
defined than the original issue. This is a highly recommendable
disc and truly puts the word ‘authentic’ back into limp-wristed
‘authenticity’.
Alex Russell
NBC Symphony Orchestra/Arturo
Toscanini,
