Arturo Toscanini Legacy, Vol. 9 ~ French Orchestral Music: Debussy / Ravel / Berlioz / Franck / Herold,etc. [Original recording remastered]

Louis J. F. Herold (Composer), Ambroise Thomas (Composer), Paul Dukas (Composer), Debussy (Composer), Ravel (Composer), Berlioz (Composer), Franck (Composer), Saint-Saens (Composer), Arturo Toscanini (Conductor), NBC Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: NBC Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Arturo Toscanini
• Composer: Louis J. F. Herold, Ambroise Thomas, Paul Dukas, Debussy, Ravel, et al.
• Audio CD (November 9, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: RCA / BMG
• ASIN: B00002JXEQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,041 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. La Mer: From Dawn Till Noon On The Sea

2. La Mer: Play Of The Waves

3. La Mer: Dialogue Of The Wind And The Sea

4. Iberia: Images Pour Orchestre, No.2: In The Streets And Byways

5. Iberia: Images Pour Orchestre, No.2: Fragrances Of The Night

6. Iberia: Images Pour Orchestre, No.2: The Morning Of A Festival Day

7. Nocturnes, No.1: Nuages

8. Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun

9. Daphnis Et Chloe, Suite No.2: Daybreak

10. Daphnis Et Chloe, Suite No.2: Pantomime

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Roman Carnival Op.9, Overture

2. Queen Mab: Romeo Et Juliette, Op.17, Scherzo

3. Psyche, No.4: Psyche Et Eros

4. Zampa, Ouverture

5. Danse Macabre, Op.40

6. Carmen, Suite No.1

7. Mignon, Ouverture

8. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Scherzo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Toscanini and Haitink "owned" Debussy, August 1, 2000

By 

madamemusico "madamemusico" (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arturo Toscanini Legacy, Vol. 9 ~ French Orchestral Music: Debussy / Ravel / Berlioz / Franck / Herold,etc. (Audio CD)

If you are one of those people who do not believe that Arturo Toscanini was a great artist, the first CD in this set should convince you. Consider, for instance, the fact that Debussy's "La Mer" is a supremely difficult piece--so difficult that conductors like Furtwangler and Stokowski never touched it, and others like Munch and Beecham did not conduct it well--and you will come to appreciate the accuracy and beauty of this 1950 NBC recording. It is, in fact, the best performance of "La Mer" recorded before the early 1970s.

Toscanini's Debussy was different from most conductors. Though he conducted sensitively, he did not pursue a soft or "cushy" sound, but rather his usual lean ambience with wonderful clarity in the inner voices. Yet this approach worked beautifully for "La Mer," "Iberia" and, surprisingly, "Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un Faune," which is the best performance of that piece I have ever heard. On the other hand, he never performed the first or third "Images for Orchestra" (Gigues and Ronde du Printemps), and his reading of the first two Nocturnes were a bit brusque and pedantic. This is where Bernard Haitink comes in. His "La Mer" and "Iberia" are second-best to Toscanini, and his "Nocturnes" (all three of them, not just Nuages and Fetes) and other "Images" are the best ever recorded--thus they complement one another in this music.

As for the remainder of the set, even with 20-bit remastering the limited sonics betray Toscanini's intent in Berlioz' "Roman Carnival Overture" (Munch is still the best in this work) and Thomas' "Mignon" Overture is sentimental drivel, but all else is good music performed beautifully. I had never heard Toscanini's "Daphnis et Chloe" suite before, but it is almost as gorgeous as the digital stereo version by Charles Dutoit. Franck's "Psyche et Eros" emerges with incredible sweetness and power, Toscanini's own "Carmen" suite sounds a bit strange compared to Bizet's but the music is conducted well, the "Zampa" overture is a sort of locus classicus in the Toscanini discography, and both "Danse macabre" and "The "Sorcerer's Apprentice" receive warm performances--the Dukas is even quite witty and whimsical.

As for the remastering--wow. I owned this "Sorcerer's Apprentice" on one of the old Victrola LPs back in the 1960s, and it sounded horrible...thin, dry, brittle, unlikable. Here, it sounds fantastic. Careful listening to the NBC Symphony reveals its rather strange sound--the French horns and lower strings and winds sounded slightly muddy, never really lush, while the trumpets, trombones, upper strings and winds were a bit overbright--but to be honest they sounded the same way on recordings with Antal Dorati, Vladimir Golschmann, Guido Cantelli and Leopold Stokowski. It was just the characteristic "sound" of this not-quite-stellar pick-up band that NBC put together for him. What matters is the magic he wrought with such an orchestra, and the marvelous feeling that came through in their playing. This particular collection reveals a warmer, jollier side of Toscanini than normal, and as such should be in every classical music-lover's collection.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At last, Toscanini to celebrate and revere, December 4, 2005

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Arturo Toscanini Legacy, Vol. 9 ~ French Orchestral Music: Debussy / Ravel / Berlioz / Franck / Herold,etc. (Audio CD)

Towards the end of his life Toscanini was more than a great conductor--he was The Maestro in excelsis. I grew up in that era and would sit in awe before his Verdi Requiem and Missa Solemnis, oblivious of the cramped, dry sonics and hard-riding tempos. But the age of Bernstein and Karajan, followed by the revival of Furtwangler, threw Toscanini into the shade. I can honstely say that until this month I had forgotten him entirely.

Now, thanks to the amazing technology whereby these tinny old NBC Sym. recordings have blossomed into a warm, natural, open acoustic (we can all quit cursing Studio 8-H), it's possible to reevaluate Toscanini. In this 2-CD colleciton of French orchestral works he is at his very best. It's a shock to listen to his La Mer and realize that it might well be the best performance on disc. Toscanini refines Debussy to the compressed clarity of a crystal--not a single note breaks loose from the perfect structure. In this new remastering the solo instruments actually have color and the strings sing. The mystery and drama implicit in Debussy's tone poem wrap us in an enveloping trance.

The Nuages from Trois Nocturnes and the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, also in excellent sound, expose us to a Toscanini cliche, that he drove the music too hard late in life. This faun isn't out to seduce girls but to hook them on dexedrine--the tempo is much too fast and devoid of atmosphere. Yet the same crystalline clarity is there and becomes magnified in an outstanding Iberia, which has all the flexibility, half-supressed eroticism, and Spanish nostalgia the score deamnds. One is riveted from note to note by Toscanini's firm but intuitive phrasing.

These are the performances that most captured my imagination, along with a sublimely delicate Queen Mab Scherzo from Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet. Along iwth the La Mer, I'd count this a first choice. For those who love Ravel's candied tease, Daphnis and Chloe (I don't), Toscanini's reading is crisper and more bracing than usual. No sleepy morning nookie here.

There's probably not going to be a Toscanini revival--his enormous influence has already become part of modern orchestral life--but we can be grateful that The Maestro is no longer just a reputation prppped up in a hollow tuxedo. This is great music making with no apology or rose-colored glasses.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toscanini's French repertoire, October 22, 2003

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Robert E. Nylund (Ft. Wayne, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Arturo Toscanini Legacy, Vol. 9 ~ French Orchestral Music: Debussy / Ravel / Berlioz / Franck / Herold,etc. (Audio CD)

Here is a fine collection of some of the best works by French composers featuring Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, all taken from studio recordings. Most of these were made in Carnegie Hall and benefit from its outstanding acoustics.

Remarkably, Debussy's "La Mer" and "Iberia" and Dukas' "The Sorceror's Apprentice" were made in NBC Studio 8-H; when there was no audience present in that studio, the sound was generally better, although it still lacked the reverberation of most concert halls. The performances, however, are outstanding. "La Mer," in particular has seldom sounded as haunting as it did in Toscanini's 1950 Studio 8-H recording. "Iberia" is exciting and colorful, as Debussy intended, and "The Sorceror's Apprentice" is lively and energetic, even if the tempo is a bit faster than most performances.

I've never heard Toscanini's recording of "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," Debussy's first great masterpiece. The "Daphnis and Chloe" suite by Ravel is sensational, even if one misses the wordless chorus used in most performances and recordings. Toscanini brings out the beauty and sensitivity of the slower sections, then achieves great excitement in the spectacular finale.

Toscanini did well with Berlioz, as the "Roman Carnival" and "Queen Mab Scherzo" demonstrate. Fortunately, Toscanini also recorded the complete "Romeo and Juliet" dramatic symphony in 1947; I believe that was the first recording of the full score and was made after a highly-acclaimed NBC broadcast concert.

"Psyche and Eros" by Cesar Franck is absolutely brilliant, quite moving, in Toscanini's studio recording in Carnegie Hall.

He obviously had a lot of fun with Louis Herold's "Zampa" overture, one of the more showy of his 1952 Carnegie Hall studio recordings, as well as Camille Saint-Saens' "Danse macabre." The excerpts from "Carmen" by Georges Bizet are quite interesting, undoubtedly benefiting from Toscanini's careful editing.

Finally, the overture to "Mignon" was originally issued on a 12-inch 78-rpm disc in the mid 1940's; it was also recorded in Carnegie Hall and has remarkably good sound.

RCA's digital remastering of these recordings is a plus, although it is sometimes challenging for today's engineers to overcome the original engineers' tendency to boost highs and reduce lows.