Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

RCA/BMG have reissued these recordings numerous times since their initial LP release. To the best of my knowledge, they've never been out of print. The sound on various incarnations has varied, from the clean but compressed mono originals, fake stereo reissues in the 1960s, to at least four CD issues. In 1997, RCA totally reorganized and inventoried its massive vaults, which had been in disarray for decades. As a result, many original sources which had been declared "lost" were now "found." This new remastering is strikingly improved sonically over all earlier issues. Utilizing the best technology now available, RCA has also done the right thing by hiring a musician - conductor Ed Houser - rather than whiz-bang technicians to supervise the remastering. The NBC Symphony Orchestra now sounds better than ever before, with smoother strings, fuller winds, increased dynamic range, and less blotting out during fortissimos.

Perhaps no conductor of the 20th Century has been as misunderstood as Arturo Toscanini, as evidenced by the critical backlash with which he was assailed in the years following his death. That criticism was partly in reaction to the equally unbalanced adulation heaped upon him during his lifetime. I remember once mentioning to an acquaintance my admiration for Toscanini's Beethoven and Brahms, and he shot back, "He conducts everything too fast!" In fact, in comparison with other recordings and broadcasts of his era, Toscanini's conducting was not generally faster than average. In relation to TODAY'S phlegmatic tempos, however, Toscanini's pacing is definitely brisk. But what most people are hearing as fast is, in fact, Toscanini's characteristic rhythmic vitality and, occasionally, drive, which brings the faster movements to sparkling life. (The finale to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is an example: the tempo is not unusually fast, but it SEEMS faster than normal because of the precise articulation and clarity.) Likewise, the slow movements are never dragged, and glow with Italianate warmth.

It is worth noting that RCA has made one major change in this reissue of Beethoven Symphonies: the 1949 studio recording of the "Eroica," heard in previous complete sets has been replaced by the 1953 live Carnegie Hall version. RCA does not credit the liner notes, but they are reprints of Mortimer H. Frank's excellent notes originally written for the early 1990s CD release.

RCA has so far only released Toscanini's core repertoire with the NBC Symphony--but they are more than welcome additions to the catalogue. The Maestro's recordings with the New Your Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra should also be remastered, post-haste.

Follow up: Toscanini's Philly recordings have been remastered and issued Arturo Toscanini: The Complete Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings 1941-42. Get them, you won't regret it.

The controversey about Toscanini just will not go away, nor is it likely to abate anytime soon. Contemporary music critics ran out of superlatives in their reviews of Toscanini's performances, and found his style so convincing and powerful they soon referred to him as THE Maestro, as if there were no others. Indeed, Toscanini had few peers during his long, outstanding career. This is somewhat harder to discern for modern listeners, who have been brought up listening to two generations of conductors who have mostly all been heavily influenced by Toscanini and the revolution in interpretation and performance he wrought.
Two myths about Toscaninini persist: the first, by his supporters, that he was a literally faithful interpreter; the second, by his critics, that he conducted everything too fast.
Neither of these myths is exactly true, but there is little point in refuting them in detail here.
The current take on Toscanini is that his recorded legacy does not support his reputation, since it consists mostly of recordings from when the maestro was already well into his 70's and 80's and had lost his creative spark. Peter Guttmann notes that by this time, Toscanini tended to regard all music as an abstraction and tended to seek maximum efficiency in performance, rather than inspired interpretaion. Very well, if that is so, it works remarkable WONDERS on Beethoven.
The first remarkable quality of any Toscanini performance is its rythymic DRIVE. This led his critics to charge that Toscanini took things too fast. What he really did was to seek what he considered to be a CORRECT tempo in every movement, one which he could inflect or adjust subtly as needed, rather than alter radically, as many other conductors did, and do to this day. This gives the music an unmatched sense of flow, and forward propulsion which serves the purpose of Beethoven remarkably well.
These performances are always going somewhere, and getting there with a purpose you can feel. One suspects that Beethoven would approve.
The other quality that sets Toscanini apart is his remarkable clarity of line, both horizontal (melody) and vertical (harmony).
This again sets up a flow to the music, a sense that every phrase flows inevitably from the one preceeding it and inevitably into the next one, that few other conductors can sustain for an entire performance. Toscanini's painstaking adjustments of orchestral balances and colors are legendary. Nowhere is that more evident than in the recording of the 7th Symphony in this set. Although the sound is only hi-fi mono, you hear the separation and definition of the orchestral sections BETTER than you do on most subsequent stereo recordings by other conductors. Nothing gets lost or assimilated in the tuttis, you hear EVERYTHING.
Finally, these are among the most DURABLE performances of these symphonies you are likely to hear. Others may contain more romance, poetry or passion, but these shine as well as they did when they were recorded half a century ago, and repeated listenings do not dim their lustre or bore you with familiarity.
Toscanini's genius was to have faith in the genius of Beethoven.
He knew that if you played these scores judiciously, with taste and absolute commitment, that the genius of Beethoven would emerge in full radiance, and dazzle the listener all by itself.

I grew up on these performances, and it's difficult for me to hear other attempts without the cold wind of criticism blowing. Nevertheless, as an adult, I've listened to them again and again in the context of other recordings and have come to something more reasonable than pure adulation. First, the sound is definitely not as good as even the most ordinary recordings of today. That's a technical matter solely. If, and it's a mighty big if, you are capable of listening beyond the sound to the music, then there simply aren't other Beethoven symphony performances that are in the same league as these. The NBC Symphony Orchestra was the most astonishing virtuoso orchestra ever assembled. If you doubt that at all, just listen to them release a sound. Many orchestras these days (though not then) can make a unified attack, but a unified release is something you just don't hear. Balances are a constant miracle as the music progresses. Toscanini was NOT a slave to the score (compare score and recording of the 9th, for example, where Toscanini reorchestrated whole sections of the last movement in order to get a greater clarity of sound (he did the same in his performances of Debussy's La Mer), and his much touted speed is many times actually a little slower than that of other conductors--it just sounds faster because it has such astonishing clarity. One can easily disagree with Toscanini's late-in-life, slam-bang approach to most music (his Brahms leaves me cold, for example) but in these overplayed and over-recorded Beethoven symphonies, there are few conductors that approach Toscanini, and none that match him. If you are serious about these compositions, this is a set that bears up under repeated scrutiny. Oh heck, I'll give it ten stars.

There are a handful of sets of the complete set of Beethoven's 9 symphonies that are truly worthy of praise. Solti, von Karajan, and Toscanini are surely among those. Toscanini's version is one of the oldest--and its sound characteristics among the most primitive. But one should not dismiss it on those grounds.

When I was an undergraduate in college, I recall the impact of this set when I first listened. I had just picked up the full 9 symphony set conducted by Toscanini and had a super cheap handmade turntable (with the mechanism set inside a cigar box) that a friend made for me (the woes of a poor college student). When I listened to the music in the solitude of my attic apartment, I got goose bumps.

Toscanini creates a tension across these symphonies. Some say that his tempos were simply fast, and that is all there is to his music. But there is much more than that. I am not a music critic, but there is a clarity to the notes that stands out from other Beethoven recordings. There is a tautness and tension to the music.

No question in my mind. Although this is a production a half century old, it is still world class as an interpretation of the Beethoven symphonies. You like Solti? You like von Karajan? You'll like Toscanini. And I can still get goose bumps listening to Toscanini's version of Beethoven's symphonies.

This is an excellent performance. Although a bargain price, I thought it a little risky because sound can be an issue on 50 year old recordings but RCA deserves praise.

Toscanini conducts the cycle of nine symphonies and RCA presents them in order 1 to 9 and packaging them compactly on 5 CDs in cardboard sleeves. You get 5 CDs in the space it takes for one jewel-box double CD if that is of concern.

The Toscanini peformances are my favorite Beethoven symphonic cycles so far. My 1977 DG von Karajan with BPO seems to drag in spots. The Delta/LaserLight release with Farencsik and Hungarian Phil is better but not this good (especially the 9th). I am not a Beethoven expert but when choosing box sets, there is some risk of getting bored in some slow movements such as the second movement of Eroica. Plus, people are picky about the singers' pitch and vibrato in the last movement of the 9th.

All 9 symphonies in this Toscanini collection sounded golden at first listening from start to finish. Beethoven style preference can be in the ear of the beholder so not everyone likes the same recordings.

But, Beethoven fans or just fans of great music should do themselves a favor and check out this Toscanini release. You may find you play it frequently and don't even notice any sound quality problems.

The sound quality of the symphonies vary, depending on where the recording comes from. I list that information here from the booklet included with the box set. Recordings from Carnegie Hall sound better, comparable to Deutsche Grammaphon early stereo recordings. Recordings from NBC Broadcasts generally sound like early live recordings, comparable to the sound quality of EMI's recording of Furtwangler's performance of the Ninth (Great Recordings of the Century).

No. 1 - Recorded December 21, 1951 in Carnegie Hall

No. 2 - Recorded November 7, 1949 & October 9, 1951 in Carnegie Hall

No. 3 - NBC Broadcast of December 6, 1953 in Carnegie Hall
Note: Unfortunately the worst sound-quality of the set; some coughs are audible in the quiet parts; I want to go back in time and give the guy a cough drop. But the performance is incredible; indeed an honorable mention for this work in "1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die". I think it's worth it to have Toscanini's performance over one with better sound but muddled conducting (ahem...Karajan 1963...ahem)

No. 4 - NBC Broadcast of February 3, 1951 in Carnegie Hall

No. 5 - NBC Broadcast of March 22, 1952 in Carnegie Hall
Note: Fortunately, this one is an exception and sounds much better than the other broadcasts. I think Toscanini does the BEST rendition of the famous eight note intro (even better than Kleiber's too melodramatic reading).

No. 6 - Recorded January 14, 1952 in Carnegie Hall
Note: Smooth and lush sound, a beautiful piece in Toscanini's hands that doesn't get "smothered" in "sentimentality" (quoted from the booklet). The booklet states that Toscanini's "retouchings of Beethoven's orchestration" in the 4th mvmt's storm provide one example to counter the "absurd notion" that Toscanini played everything "exactly as written". What, I ask, is the problem with playing pieces exactly as written? I guess we can't give Beethoven too much credit (sarcasm).

No. 7 - Recorded November 9, 1951 & NBC broadcast of November 10, 1951 in Carnegie Hall

No. 8 - Recorded November 10, 1952 in Carnegie Hall

No. 9 - Recorded March 31-April 1, 1952 in Carnegie Hall
Note: Best sound of them all, and the perfect finish is worth the whole set. Compare Toscanini's 2nd mvmt time - 13:09 - to Furtwangler's 12:00, Karajan's 11:00, and Fricsay's 10:32, and decide of Toscanini conducts to fast. An essential Ninth.

Audiophiles with high performance speakers will probably settle for inferior (or less faithful) performances of these symphonies for high-tech recordings, so I don't recommend this for them. But I do recommend this for anyone who wants to hear all nine of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies.

My original review:
As a new fan of Beethoven, I searched for a set of his nine symphonies to listen to for the first time in my life. Needless to say, it had to be near perfection (and still fit into my college-student budget), and so I came upon this set of Toscanini's performances around 1950. A little research said that this was certainly a must-have, and a quick glance at the incredible price sealed the deal. As soon as it arrived, I spent the next couple of weeks finding a little place to be alone and listen to an entire symphony, and every single time it was amazing.

The sound quality is fine...reading the reviews made me worry that there'd be static or fuzz throughout the recording (bringing me bitter memories of my Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall set, where the static overwhelmed the music). But no, the beautiful sound came through clear and pure.

I would recommend this even to beginners at classical music, since Toscanini's performances are powerful, intense, fun, and glorious...whatever Beethoven would have wanted.

The CDs are in a nice cardboard box and each CD is in its own cardboard sleeve with similar art as the cover you see pictured. Also included is a nice booklet (in three languages) that gives a neat history and brief analysis of each symphony, plus there was a picture of a page of Beethoven's draft of the Fifth and of his earpiece. The entire package is a nice and elegant presentation.

Not that anyone's been waiting for it, but this apology comes 40 years late. In the `60s I bought the old Victrola LP set of these recordings because they were cheap and even a kid who knew nothing about classical music had heard of The Maestro. Soon after though I was seduced by Furtwangler and long believed he brought greater depth to these works. By comparison Toscanini seemed a ruthless martinet. Such perceptions were not uncommon among my generation. The Furtwangler revival, particularly in the U.S., was a youth movement of the '60s and '70s. Baby Boomers found the German conductor unbuttoned and spiritual and rebelled against their parents' icon, the hidebound disciplinarian Toscanini. But now, listening to these excellent (and, once again, ridiculously inexpensive) transfers -- listening past my prejudices -- has been a humbling, exalting experience. Take the Pastoral, hardly thought to be a Toscanini specialty, even in his gentler BBC recording. With the NBC Symphony there's no sentimentality, no nature painting or communing with the infinite. Instead we're given Beethoven the classicist, the architect and also, indeed, the tone poet. Thanks to Toscanini and his disciples I've come to realize that Beethoven composed before Wagner and Bruckner and that late romantic renderings diminish the music. Just one more thing: many Maestro Mavens insist his 1939 cycle, not to mention some still earlier individual performances, are even better than these because in the `30s Toscanini was more flexible and relaxed and employed more rubato. I disagree. Toscanini continued to the end to refine and purify his art. These recordings remain a cornerstone of any collection.

This set's insighful and irresistable, especially at the 'Amazon' price. 5 stars from me!

Imagine being able to hear works played by musicians with direct links to performers who've remembered what the composer wanted in performance of his/her works during his/her lifetime. Such opportunities arise through listening to recordings made by maestros like Arturo Toscanini (born 1867, began orchestra conducting 1886) whose musicianship -- not just in terms of scholarship and technical powers -- take us to a view of the contemporary Beethoven performing rite that seems to have dimmed with successive generations. Not that every Toscanini performance of a work is the same -- indeed there's noticeable evolution -- but his basic underlying approach remained sufficiently consistent for it to be captured in recordings, like this set, made quite late in his career (it ended in mid-1954, he died early 1957).

This Beethoven cycle is ADD mono and may not be any sonic improvement over either RCA's "74321", or "GD", series CDs of the same cycle; and it's unlikely to be sonically better than the superb LP transfers in the 100-disc set released (in the late 1970s) by RCA Japan (n.l.a.). But if you don't already own this latest RCA CD package, then, at the 'Amazon' price, it'll be an indispensible part of your Beethoven cycle experience.

The NBC Symphony is in great form (Toscanini reportedly said it didn't really become a top symphony orchestra until around its 1950 continental US tour and these discs are from that period) and the recorded sound, for the most part (say except for the Seventh's last movement) captures the dynamics and unique, chrystaline fabric of the Toscanini orchestral sound.

There's apparently some confusion over whether the set's 'Eroica' is the 1949 "studio" or 1953 "live" (broadcast) performance, but the insert-booklet's per-movement timings indicate it's the 1953 one (which is broader and differently inflected compared to the '49, and some earlier, Toscanini Eroicas; the 1949 one is included in RCA's "GD" CD series). Anyhow, this kind of issue is more for discographers than those out on a journey of important musical discovery.

Buy this set, especially at the price, the performances shouldn't fail to stimulate and inspire!

Some suggested references:-

'The Toscanini Legacy' by Spike Hughes (pub. 'Dover')
'Toscanini and the Art of Conducting' by Robert C. Marsh (pub. 'Collier Books') (in UK, titled 'Toscanini and the Art of Orchestral Performance' (pub. 'Allen & Unwin'))
'Arturo Toscanini - The NBC Years' by Mortimer H. Frank (pub. 'Amadeus Press').

Stated simply, this is the grandest cycle of Beethoven symphonies available.Don't let other reviewers make you think that the sound is terrible.It is not.I am very picky about what I listen to,and the minor imperfections in this set cannot come close to comparing with the positive aspects.This set has (in my opinion the best version of the 1st and 8th I have ever heard).I hope all that purchase this set get one tenth of the enjoyment out of it that I have.

Toscanini was born in 1867, the same year as my great grandfather. According to RCA, his first gig as a conductor was in 1886! These recordings were made at Carnegie Hall between November 1949 and November 1952 except symphonies 4 & 5 which were taken from NBC broadcasts.

After seeing a great performance of Verdi's La Traviata, I bought Toscanini's rendition of the preludes from this opera. This was in 1978. Toscanini's music were on budget lps at the time. And being in college, I was on a budget. I have several of his budget lps plus this Beethoven Symphony cycle on the RCA plum dog label from the 1950s that I bought used. I have always enjoyed the performances and have always had misgivings about the at best AM radio like fidelity of the recordings.