The Madison Square Garden American Red Cross benefit concert
was given on 25 May 1944. Toscanini presided over the combined
NBC and Philharmonic-Symphony of New York orchestras, one of
which he directed (NBC) and the other (the PSONY) he had directed.
There’s no indication that this complete concert is making
its commercial first ever release, but I’m not aware of
another such release that contains every scrap as presented
in this two-disc offering from Immortal Performances.
Scrap is not pejorative. Rather it’s meant to indicate
that some of the material is necessarily peripheral to the musical
matter in hand. During the intermission an announcement was
made that Mayor La Guardia would raffle Toscanini’s baton
for the Red Cross. This all takes up eleven minutes but it is
a very evocative eleven minutes. La Guardia amusingly bullies
the price up to reach $11,000, and the sound preserves a vivid
moment; this was presumably recorded on two shellac sides, the
second of which (the second part of the auction) is in significantly
better sound than the first. No matter: a slice of history is
enshrined.
The music centred on Wagner and Verdi. It opens with a dynamic,
dramatic Tannhäuser overture (Dresden version).
Toscanini’s performances of this didn’t alter substantially
as performances from March 1938 and December 1948 - which is
also preserved on film - demonstrate. However the combined orchestras
produce a thrillingly massive sonority, with fulsome strings
and powerful brass. Listen also to the visceral cymbal crashes.
The demerit is a real congestion of sound in climaxes, with
swishing strings and blasting in fortes. There has clearly been
significant restoration work to try to alleviate this problem,
and indeed it sounds better than it can ever have sounded before.
But it’s still not the easiest of aural rides. Such problems
are very much less audible in the Prologue, Dawn and Siegfried’s
Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung which
appeared frequently in Toscanini’s programmes from the
later 1930s to 1954. There’s some shellac hiss at the
start of Tristan but more than this one notices the wonderful
richness of conception and execution - the power and the passion
- of the conducting and the playing. Add this to the March 1938
and February 1939 and February 1941 inscriptions to feel the
intensity of Toscanini’s conducting of the Prelude
andLiebestod.
Act III of Rigoletto has been issued before often enough.
RCA Red Seal issued it and companies such as Opus Kura have
issued their CD versions into the bargain. It’s one of
Toscanini’s most admired Verdi performances. It too features
the combined orchestras, and a stellar cast. It’s in good
sound, well balanced and tautly conducted. Warren, Milanov,
Peerce, Moscona and Merriman offer a lexicon of committed vocalism.
We also hear Verdi’s Hymn of the Nations, an exciting
potboiler, and also a frequent Toscanini encore piece in the
Northern states of the United States in the shape of Sousa’s
Stars and Stripes Forever. Down South he encored with
Dixie. The two-disc set ends with Beethoven’s Fifth
Symphony in a studio performance given almost exactly a year
later as a VE Day Concert. Overlook the errant track-listing
which notes the opening commentary is 16 minutes 5 seconds long.
It’s actually 16 seconds long. Toscanini was allowed 30
minutes for the broadcast performance and so he cut the first
movement repeat. It seems as if this stricture and limitation
angered the irascible conductor and one might be inclined to
adjudge the performance brusque. However it doesn’t sound
to me vastly dissimilar to other surviving examples, albeit
there is a touch of impatience here and there. He doesn’t
however rush the slow movement dramatically. I’d say,
compared with his April 1933 PSONY studio 78 set and his NBC
November 1939 performance, that the proportions are subtly different
and that he does hustle the scherzo and finale a little more
than he did ordinarily. It’s certainly not the best of
Toscanini in Beethoven.
There’s a long and first class booklet essay on the performances
and their background. Highly effective restoration has ensured
that listening has been significantly assisted.
Jonathan Woolf
Contents list
CD 1
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Tannhäuser - overture (Dresden version) (1845) [14:28]
Götterdämmerung - Prologue, Dawn and Siegfried’s
Rhine Journey (1876) [11:31]
Tristan and Isolde - Prelude [10:17]: Liebestod (1865) [6:47]
Die Walküre - Act III; Ride of the Valkyries (1850) [5:27]
Intermission announcement [2:05]: Mayor La Guardia raffles Toscanini’s
baton for the American Red Cross [8:48]
CD 2
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Rigoletto Act III (1851) [31:24]
Rigoletto - Leonard Warren (baritone)
Gilda - Zinka Milanov (soprano)
Duke - Jan Peerce (tenor)
Sparafucile - Nicola Moscona (bass)
Maddalena - Nan Merriman (mezzo)
Hymn of the Nations (1862) [13:31]
John Philip SOUSA (1854
1932)
Stars and Stripes Forever (1897) [4:22]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Opening commentary [0:16]
Symphony No.5 in C minor Op.67 (1807) [26:54]
NBC Symphony and Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York Orchestras
(combined)/Arturo Toscanini 