Customer Reviews

Arturo Toscanini

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The Maestro recorded for RCA for over 20 years and the company did not release all the performances. Never released before performances include an elegant Rhapsody in Blue with Earl Wild and Benny Goodman, Kodaly's sparkling Marosszek Dances, Borodin's Second Symphony (in very poor sound), a marvelous Ein Heldenleben by Strauss, a scorching En Saga by Sibelius, and a horrible Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt.
The Rossini overtures are in a class by themselves. No other conductor could gently raise the volume and tempo to get that wonderful Rossini effect.
Gershwin's American in Paris is no wimpy tourist. And Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite will never sound grander. Listen to the storm. Only the Maestro could make a storm sound like music, rather than just the banging of percussion (also in the William Tell overture).
The Wagner selections contain the most beautiful Siegfried Idyll you will ever hear.
Beethoven's 8th symphony receives a dramatic treatment, not the usual Haydn makeover.
Beethoven's violin concerto is played by Heifetz in a performance that is better than his stereo version with Munch.
Included are Brahms' and Schumann's third symphonies, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, Schubert's Unfinished symphony, Mozart's 40th symphony, and Cherubini's symphony all receiving the Toscanini treatment.
And there is more. Many of the performances were re-recorded 10 to 15 years later in better sound. But, this is a way for the unfamiliar to appreciate the greatness of the Maestro and for the familiar to fill out their collection.

Some of us will remember the NBC broadcasts of the 40's and 50's featuring Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra especially put together for him. This album is a srep back in time with the great conductor interpreting numerous works in his own very special style. Although the sound is far below today's standards, the historic content is amazing. I particularly enjoyed Toscanini's treatment of the Barber Adagio, which he premiered in its orchestral form. His interpretation took 7:11 minutes where most conductors take about 9:00 minutes. He was also a master of Beethoven's music as shown by Disc 2. THere is a great variety of music in this collection that shows Toscanini's versatility.

This 10 CD collection is well worth the cost and for those not familiar with Toscanin, this is a wonderful example of why he is considered one of the greatest conductors who ever lived.

ARTURO TOSCANINI (1867-1957)

(conductor)


CD 1


JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

1 Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 (arr. Respighi) 11:43

rec. 22 November 1947


WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, KV 550

2 I. Allegro molto 7:17

3 II. Andante 7:32

4 III. Minuetto: Allegro 3:51

5 IV. Finale: Allegro assai 4:00

rec. 25 December 1937


LUIGI CHERUBINI (1760-1842)

Symphony in D major

6 I. Lento 10:07

7 II. Larghetto cantabile 6:52

8 III. Scherzo: Allegro assai 4:36

9 IV. Finale: Allegro vivace 4:21

rec. 10 March 1952


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra


Total Time: 60:24



CD 2


LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 8 in F major, op. 93

1 I. Adagio vivace e con brio 8:56

2 II. Allegretto scherzando 3:33

3 III. Tempo di Menuetto 4:33

4 IV. Allegro vivace 7:02

rec. 25 November 1939


Violin Concerto in D major, op. 61

5 I. Allegro ma non troppo 21:09

(Cadenza: Auer/Heifetz)

6 II. Larghetto 8:45

7 III. Rondo: Allegro 8:23

(Cadenza: Joachim/Heifetz)

Jascha Heifetz (violin)

rec. 11 March 1940


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra


Total Time: 62:24



CD 3


GIOACCHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868)

1 La Scala di Seta: Overture 6:00

rec. 5 March 1949

2 Il Barbiere de Siviglia: Overture 7:02

rec. 28 June 1945

3 La Cenerentola: Overture 7:30

rec. 8 June 1945

4 Guillaume Tell: Overture 11:40

rec. 1 March 1939


GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901)

5 La Traviata: Prelude to Act I 3:54

rec. 10 March 1941

6 La forza del destino: Overture 6:57

rec. 28 June 1945

7 Aida: Prelude to Act I 9:00

rec. 30 March 1940

8 Otello: Ballet Music (Ballabili) Act III 6:01

rec. 16 September 1948


Arturo Toscanini conducting

the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1-7) & the Orchestra della Teatro alla Scala di Milano (8)


Total Time: 58:07



CD 4


RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883)

1 Eine Faust-Ouvertüre 10:48

rec. 11 November 1946

2 Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I 7:53

rec. 17 March & 6 May 1941

3 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Prelude to Act I 8:58

rec. 11 March 1946

4 Siegfried-Idyll 16:04

rec. 11 March 1946

5 Parsifal Prelude to Act I & Good Friday Music (Karfreitagszauber) Act III 24:10

rec. 9 April 1944


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra


Total Time: 67:54



CD 5


FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D 759 "Unfinished"

1 I. Allegro moderato 9:33

2 II. Andante con moto 11:28

rec. 12 March & 2 June 1950


FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY (1809-1847)

Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56 "Scottish"

3 I. Andante con moto 11:47

4 II. Vivace non troppo 4:04

5 III. Adagio 8:44

6 IV. Allegro vivacissimo 8:17

rec. 5 April 1941


FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)

7 Hungarian Rhapsody for Orchestra No. 2 in C sharp minor (orch. Liszt/Doppler) 10:10

rec. 4 April 1943


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra


Total Time:



CD 6


ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op. 97 "Rhenish"

1 I. Lebhaft 9:33

2 II. Scherzo: Sehr mäßig 5:31

3 III. Nicht schnell 4:33

4 IV. Feierlich 5:12

5 V. Lebhaft 5:41

rec. 12 November 1949


JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

Symphony No. 3 in F major, op. 90

6 I. Allegro con brio 11:30

7 II. Andante 7:43

8 III. Poco Allegretto 5:46

9 IV. Allgero con brio 8:01

rec. 8 February 1941


ANTONÍN DVO'ÁK (1841-1904)

10 Scherzo capriccioso, op. 66 12:32

rec. 20 April 1940


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra


Total Time: 76:05



CD 7


ALEXANDER BORODIN (1833-1887)

Symphony No. 2 in B minor

1 I. Allegro 7:31

2 II. Scherzo: Prestissimo. Allegretto. Tempo I 5:28

3 III. Andante 8:43

4 IV. Finale: Allegro 7:15

rec. 26 February 1938


SERGE PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)

Symphony No. 1 in D major, op. 25 "Classique"

5 I. Allegro 3 :39

6 II. Larghetto 3:35

7 III. Gavotta (Non troppo allegro) 1:28

8 IV. Finale: Molto vivace 4:14

rec. 10 November 1951


ZOLTÁN KODÁLY (1882-1967)

9 Marosszék Dances 11:47

rec. 8 February 1941


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra


Total Time: 53:44



CD 8


CÉSAR FRANCK (1822-1890)

1 Les Éolides 10:44

Symphonic Poem for Orchestra

rec. 12 November 1938


2 Psyché et Eros 8:26

Symphonic Poem for Orchestra

rec. 5 Januar 1952


CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)

Images pour Orchestra II: Ibéria

3 I. Par les rues et par les chemins 6 :52

4 II. Les parfums de la nuit 7 :02

5 III. Le matin d'un jour de fête 4 :38

rec. 16 April 1936


MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)

6 Daphnis et Chloé : Suite No. 2 16 :46

rec. 26 November 1938


ALBERT ROUSSEL (1869-1937)

7 Le festin de l'araignée (The Feast of the Spider, Ballet Suite) 14:22

rec. 7 April 1946


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1, 2, 6, 7) & the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (3-5)


Total Time: 68:52



CD 9


RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949)

1 Ein Heldenleben, op. 40 41:25

Tone Poem for Orchestra

rec. 1 February 1941


JEAN SIBELIUS (1865-1957)

2 En Saga, op. 9 18:01

Tone Poem for Orchestra

rec. 15 March 1952


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra


Total Time: 59:27



MAESTRO FURIOSO VOL. 3


CD 10


GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)

1 Rhapsody in Blue 16:04

Benny Goodman (clarinet), Earl Wild (piano)

rec. 1 November 1942


2 An American in Paris 15:58

rec. 14 November 1943


FERDE GROFÉ (1892-1972)

Grand Canyon Suite

3 I. Sunrise 5:07

4 II. Painted Desert 6:11

5 III. On the Trail 7:18

6 IV. Sunset 4:31

7 V. Cloudburst 8:24

rec. 10 September 1945


SAMUEL BARBER (1910-1981)

8 Adagio for Strings, op. 11 7:11

rec. 19 March 1942


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra

all recorded live at the Carnegie Hall NYC


Total Time: 70:46

It is typical that the first performance of any classical work that one hears, if well performed, tends to stick in ones mind, and defines for subsequent hearings of other performances a standard to measure up to. I grew up on Toscanini, and was told repeatedly that he was one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century. I remember sitting for hours, listening entranced to nothing but Toscanini. In the case of Toscanini, his luster has been lost, and in my musical maturity have found much better recordings and performances of just about everything that Toscanini had to offer. This compendium of 10 CDs of his works confirms that statement. Toscanini tends to always be very sharp, bombastic, and mechanical in his performances. Somehow, he seems to think that if a work is flawlessly performed in double the meter of any other conductor, it is better performed. Toscanini is classical music without feeling. There is nothing on this CD that I have not heard better performed by other conductors. In addition, the recordings in this set are poorly cleaned up, and much of the record noise and tinny sound remains. They could have done better. The only good grace of this set is that it is very inexpensive, and does give one a proper feel of Toscanini.