greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) (05/02/84)
For a long time, I've been finding many of the Toscanini recordings, despite major flaws in the recorded sound, more satisfying performances than more recent, better recorded ones. There is a very great danger in believing stereotypes without proving them with your own ears. The image of Toscanini foisted on us by many critics and other writers is of a martinet, driving ruthlessly forward with everything harsh, rushed, and furious. My ears tell me, even through the brash, strident sound of the recordings, that although his tempi were on the fast side, they were maintained with a marvelous plasticity which allowed for subtlety of inflection within a framework of musical continuity and cohesion. This can be heard on the sonically flawed recordings. What cannot be heard is what has been described to me by those who did hear him conduct in the concert hall - the actual "sound" of the orchestra (be it NBC, BBC, Philadelphia, or New York Philharmonic) that was characteristic of his performances. Several people have described a transparency of texture and luminescence which the recording setup adopted by RCA Victor (not to mention broadcast airchecks) was unable to capture. A number of his live radio broadcasts was available for a while (and some are still floating around) as "private" issues of the Arturo Toscanini Society. These are highly variable in sound quality but most, despite noise and distortion, enable one to hear the greatness of the performances. Of the recordings issued commercially, the best bets are the (now out-of-print but still to be found in some shops) German and English RCA Victrola Toscanini Series, with gold jackets and serial numbers prefixed by "AT". The sound on these is substantially cleaner and more solid than on the domestic RCA Red Seal and Victrola issues, or what I've heard of the Japanese import pressings. A recent Italian "half-speed mastered" series is, for my taste, to be avoided because, although no mention of this is made on either the jackets or record labels, they are electronically reprocessed into pseudo-stereo. If you doubt this, listen with headphones. This adds an artifical spaciousness and reverberation to the sound at a considerable cost in clarity and bass solidity. I find it very interesting that performances of his from the 1930's do not sound "dated" musically, the way that contemporary performances by Stokowski, Koussevitsky, de Sabata and others do. In many ways, Toscanini was a leader in promoting adherence to the score and elimination of distortions and liberties that were at that time accepted as tradition. I find that the expressive powers of Tchaikovsky, for example, come across much more strongly when, as in Toscanini's hands, his music is played with rhythmic precision and clarity of texture rather than the sentimental quagmire it often becomes with the exaggerations loaded on by other conductors. - Greg Paley
mgv@duke.UUCP (Marco Valtorta) (05/02/84)
[For line eaters] Toscanini, not Toscannini or Toscaninni as it appeared in a recent article. Trust a Milanese! Marco
robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (05/04/84)
References: Toscanini WAS a ruthless, hard-driving martinet, with a terrible temper, and the authority to hire and fire. He once hit a musician in the eye with a baton. The musican did not sue. Musicians understood and respected both Toscanini's power and great musicianship, with the result that they really paid attention to him, so he could often get what he wanted. Toscanini is Italian through and through. He astounded listeners by bringing them the COMBINATION of his hard driving tempos, and silky, singing lines. It was Toscanini who popularized the fast tempo for the first 4 notes of Beethoven's 5th. Most conductors before him played it as "fate knocks at the door", four slow knocks. I think most conductors today do not play the four notes as fast as Toscanini did. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison princeton!eosp1!robison