Music & Arts CD1194 [stereo!], 58:20 (Distrib. Albany) ****:
The penultimate concert by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony from Carnegie Hall (21 March 1954) finds him in what might be termed ambiguous form, a mix of deftness and failing powers. The Rossini Overture to The Barber of Seville is all grace and lithe energy, the singing line primary, but tempered by the buffo sprit, Mozart with an impish twinkle in the eye. The Tchaikovsky plays somewhat broad for Toscanini’s fiery temperament, though I would hardly call the phrasings in the first movement “listless,” as does Christopher Dyment in his program notes.
Editor Aaron Z. Snyder documents his attempts to fix errant clarinet and oboe entries in the first movement, which had created metrical problems of synchronization of ensemble. The extended first movement coda is well paced, thoughtful, permitted a natural decay. Beautiful cello and wind lines in the Allegro con grazia. The middle section balances string pathos against tympanic drama in a vivid, fluid manner. The sound–in early stereophonic–provides ample evidence that The NBC could project taut and nuanced colors, especially pizzicato, in the Carnegie Hall venue. The march movement enjoys Toscanini’s innate exuberance and driving force, a carefully modulated focus and underlying, sonorous tension. Perhaps a pallor might be found in the usually explosive cadences, but the later trumpet and tympani interplay dispels my worries. Does the delay to the opening breath of the Adagio suggest that The Maestro knows this is his last excursion into this score? Broad, slow tempos, and exquisite textural balances suggest something of Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration. The rubato approaches Mengelberg for the stretching of the musical line to achieve a feverish pathos. A remarkable document, whatever deficits the Old Man might have suffered this late in a colossal career. [And a boon to audiophiles, since the only other known stereo recording of Toscanini was the all-Wagner program…Ed.]
— Gary Lemco
