Toscanini Archive
Toscanini conducts Contemporary Russian Music = Works by PROKOFIEV; SHOSTAKOVICH; KABALEVSKY – NBC Symphony Orchestra – Pristine Audio
Toscanini reviews Russian Composers in the re-release of historic recordings!
Toscanini Conducts American Music, Volume 1 = LOEFFLER: Memories of My Childhood; CRESTON: Choric Dance No. 2; GOULD: Lincoln Legend; GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue – Earl Wild, piano/ Benny Goodman, clarinet/ NBC Symphony Orchestra/ Arturo Toscanini – Pristine Audio
Arturo Toscanini leads a wartime concert that celebrates the American musical character. Toscanini Conducts American Music, Volume 1 = LOEFFLER: Memories of My Childhood (Life in a Russian Village); CRESTON: Choric Dance No. 2; GOULD: Lincoln Legend; GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue – Earl Wild, piano/ Benny Goodman, clarinet/ NBC Symphony Orchestra/ Arturo Toscanini – Pristine Audio PASC 495, 54:03 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Andrew Rose restores to full, intensely resonant sonics the live NBC Symphony broadcast from Studio 8-H of 1 November 1942, dedicated to American music by way of lifting the morale at the front during wartime. Rose notes that prior to this concert, only the Loeffler work had enjoyed attention from Toscanini; and, after this concert, none of the selections was to receive a second session, a trait that lies closer to Stokowski than to Toscanini. The Loeffler piece has a curious history, having been premiered in this country by Frederick Stock in 1924. Loeffler led a rustic, village life in the Ukraine village of Smela; but the family left for Germany, where his father ran a sugar factory. When Bismarck sought the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine, Loeffler’s father joined an organization in opposition, suffered conviction and imprisonment in […]
Arturo Toscanini = MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 4, “Italian”; Symphony No. 5,“Reformation”; WAGNER: Parsifal, Prelude, Act I – NBC Symphony Orchestra (Mendelssohn)/ London Symphony Orchestra (Wagner) – Praga Digitals
The natural power and persuasive brilliance of the Toscanini experience return in music of Mendelssohn and Wagner. Arturo Toscanini = MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 “Italian”; Symphony No. 5 in d minor, Op. 107 “Reformation”; WAGNER: Parsifal: Prelude, Act I; Good Friday Music – NBC Symphony Orchestra (Mendelssohn)/ London Symphony Orchestra (Wagner) – Praga Digitals PRD/DSD 350128, 78:54 (11/11/16) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: I can recall having traveled downtown to 49th Street in New York City, specifically to obtain from Sam Goody’s record store a copy of RCA LM 1851, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 5 with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony, performances that benefit from the Carnegie Hall venue, 1953 and 1954. At that time, Toscanini’s presence on the podium carried a guarantee of propulsive energy tied to a virtually religious devotion to the letter of the composer’s intentions. Mendelssohn’s 1833 Italian Symphony seemed to convey an innocent, idealistic Mediterranean impression, with none of the gritty, new Realism I might find in contemporary cinema of the period, Fellini’s La Strada or Pasolini’s Accatone. Rather, the symphony invoked blue skies in the first movement and a somber but optimistic Roman processional in […]
PUCCINI: Turandot (2016) – Orch. del Teatro alla Scala di Milano/Riccardo Chailly – Decca
Something’s different about this production. PUCCINI: Turandot (2016, Luciano Berio completion) Cast: Nina Stemme, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Maria Agresta , Coro di voci bianche dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala Orch.: Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano Director: Riccardo Chailly Studio: Decca. Blue-ray [1/27/17] Run Time: 130 minutes Video: 1.77:1 Color Audio: DTS-HD 5.1, PCM Stereo Subtitles: English, German, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, French, Italian Rating: ***** What is the most outstanding feature of this recording of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot? Is it the vividly recorded sound under the expert baton of conductor Riccardo Chailly? How about those well-miked singers, who manage to sound far better than they did in a recent Metropolitan Opera production of Turandot? Or the staging and lighting at Italy’s La Scala, so lush and regal as to be almost overwhelming (particularly when viewed on a 4K television)? Perhaps the excellent acting, judiciously understated as when Aleksandrs Antoninko didn’t grandstand during the famous “Nessun Dorma”? No, something’s different about this production. It’s the ending. They’ve changed it. When Puccini died in 1924, he left the opera incomplete. Two years later Franco Alfano penned a conclusion that, if you’re familiar with the opera, you’ve definitely heard it. Alfano was called in […]
MENDELSSOHN: Songs Without Words; Andante and Rondo capriccioso – Ania Dorfmann, p. – Pristine Audio (2 CDs)
Mark Obert-Thorn restores Ania Dorfmann’s impressive effort in the complete set of Mendelssohn’s poetic tone-pictures. MENDELSSOHN: Songs Without Words; Andante and Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14 – Ania Dorfmann, p. – Pristine Audio PAKM 069 (2 CDs), TT: 2:12:21 [avail. in various formats from www.pristineclassical.com] ****: In his extensive “Producer’s Note,” Mark Obert-Thorn justly laments the fact that Russian pianist Ania Dorfamnn (1899-1984) remains in the collective memory of classical music enthusiasts as a “singular success,” her having recorded the C Major Beethoven Piano Concerto with Arturo Toscanini. Happily, thanks to the compact disc medium, much of her recorded legacy – excepting the Chopin waltzes – has returned, documentation of her wide-ranging gifts in Romantic repertory, with an occasional visit to contemporary music, specifically Menotti. Obert-Thorn restores her survey of the complete Mendelssohn Songs Without Words (rec. October – December 1956) and the brilliant Rondo capriccioso (12-13 January 1953), salon works in eight books that frequently attain a modest virtuoso status. Mendelssohn, himself a fine pianist, often writes left-hand accompaniments that demand wide leaps, while the fleetest of these miniatures asks for a firm tenor or soprano melodic line. When the RCA Victor set (LM 6128) had a review in […]
BEETHOVEN 7th Sym.; SCHUBERT 8th Sym.; Encores – Philadelphia Orch./Stokowski (1927) – Pristine
1927 readings of Beethoven and Schubert achieve an ardent, fiery gloss in these remasterings. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 93; SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 8 in b, D. 759 “Unfinished”; Moment Musical No. 3 in f (arr. Stokowski), D. 780; Rosamunde, D. 797: Ballet Music No. 2: Two Versions – Philadelphia Orch./ Leopold Stoowski – Pristine Audio PASC 483, 74:03 [avail. in sev. formats from www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Producer and editor Mark Obert-Thorn revitalizes a select group of 1927 recordings by Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) with his Philadelphia Orchestra, at the time an ensemble whose discipline and homogeneity of execution rivaled the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam under Mengelberg, the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky, and the Halle Orchestra as led by Sir Hamilton Harty. The first of Stokowski’s recorded interpretations of the Beethoven Seventh Symphony (6, 15 and 25 April 1927) projects an enthusiastic energy throughout, although occasionally the vehemence tends to exaggeration. The slow first-movement introduction enjoys a hearty sense of harmonic drama, leisurely in its traversal of three major keys of A, C, and F. The ensuing Vivace carries a restless breadth quite exhilarating. The a minor Allegretto movement rings tragically true, with fine response in the divided […]
Fabiren Sevitzky & the Indianapolis Sym. Vol. I – Pristine Audio
Mark Obert-Thorn restores the World Premiere recording of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony. Fabien Sevitzky – Indianapolis Symphony Vol. 1 = TCHAIKOVSKY: Manfred Sym. in b minor, Op. 58; Waltz from Eugene Onegin, Op. 24; GLINKA: Russlan and Ludmilla Ov.; RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Dubinushka, Op. 62; LIADOV: Baba Yaga, Op. 56 – Indianapolis Sym. Orch./ Fabien Sevitzky – Pristine Audio PASC 479, 79:00 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****: The restoration of the Fabien Sevitzky (nee Koussevitzky) reading of the Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony (27-28 January 1942) at the Mural Theatre, Indianapolis by audio engineer and annotator Mark Obert-Thorn is not the first CD incarnation of this performance: it had been issued on the Historic-Recordings.co.uk label in 2009 (HRCD 00017) in a transfer by Damien Rogan. Under that aegis, the gloomy, dramatic symphony inspired by Lord Byron’s 1816 epic poem stands alone; here, Obert-Thorn adds – in the first two selections from 1941 – the earliest of the conductor’s sessions at RCA Victor. Sevitzky (1891-1967) – nephew of his more illustrious uncle Serge Koussevitzky – had studied both with Liadov and Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg, so he had imbibed the Russian style naturally. An avid collector of neckwear, Sevitzky claimed to possess the second largest assortment of neckties, […]
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in e minor; Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Ov.; SHULMAN: A Laurentian Ov. – NBC Sym./ Guido Cantelli – Pristine Audio
The talented Guido Cantelli appears in 1952 Carnegie Hall for some rousing Tchaikovsky and a rare Shulman performance. TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in e minor, Op. 64; Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Ov.; SHULMAN: A Laurentian Ov. – NBC Sym./ Guido Cantelli – Pristine Audio PASC 457, 72:08 [avail. in various formats from www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Andrew Rose revives two live concerts from Carnegie Hall featuring Italian virtuoso conductor Guido Cantelli (1920-1956) at the podium, in flamboyant display of his persuasive, interpretative powers. The 1888 Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony did not glean much respect from the NBC’s official leader Arturo Toscanini, but Cantelli maintained a healthy, searching respect for the score. Cantelli remains attentive (1 March 1952) to the perpetual struggle of this “fate” symphony between darkness and light, the tensions between a nervous e minor and E Major in the first movement. No less lyrically tragic, the second movement Andante cantabile moves from b minor to periodic flights of D Major. What makes the first movement especially effective derives from Cantelli’s flexible sense of rhythm and inflected rubato, much in a Romantic style we might associate with Koussevitzky, but less flagrantly epic. The NBC woodwinds – the oboe, clarinet and flute […]
“Arturo Toscanini, The Final New York Philharmonic Concert” = Works of HAYDN, RESPIGHI, SIBELIUS, WAGNER & WEBER – NY Philharmonic – Pristine Audio
The rare inscription of this 1945 pension-fund concert makes a potent impression.
GRIEG: Piano Concerto in a minor; MENDELSSOHN: Piano Concerto No. 1 in g minor; SCHUMANN: Carnaval – Ania Dorfmann, p./ Robin Hood Dell Orch. of Philadelphia/ Erich Leinsdorf – Pristine Audio
Russian pianist Ania Dorfmann enjoys a partial “resurrection” of her otherwise neglected legacy in a Pristine remastering.
Fritz Reiner conducts RICHARD STRAUSS = Also Sprach Zarathustra; Burleske in D Minor; Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks – Byron Janis, p./ Chicago Sym. Orch./ NBC Symphony (Till) – Pristine Audio
Pristine Classics adds its own Reiner survey of Richard Strauss to a variety of sources.
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 1 in C Major; Symphony No. 3, (Eroica) – Philharmonic-Sym. of New York/ Willem Mengelberg – Pristine Audio
Historic 1930 readings of Beethoven from New York grant an epic breadth to scores Mengelberg leads in the grand Romantic tradition.
Victor de Sabata – The Complete Berlin Philharmonic Recordings = BRAHMS, STRAUSS, RAGNER, VERDI, KODALY, RESPIGHI – Berlin Philharmonic Orch./ Victor de Sabata – Pristine
The complete 1939 Berlin Philharmonic recordings by Victor de Sabata, whom many considered the finest conductor of his generation.
Lucerne Festival – George Szell = DVORAK: Symphony No. 8 in G Major; BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 – Czech Philharmonic Orch. (Dvorak)/ Swiss Festival Orch. /George Szell – Audite
The veritable master of orchestral discipline, George Szell, unleashes his musical will upon two familiar scores at the Lucerne Festival in potent readings of Dvorak and Brahms.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad” – Mariinsky Orchestra/ Valery Gergiev – Mariinsky
Not the benchmark set by Bernstein, but certainly a benchmark in terms of sound and certain aspects of performance.
SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 4; DEBUSSY: Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien – Suite; La Mer – Philharmonia Orch./ Guido Cantelli – ICA Classics
A splendid reissue of the meteoric conducting of Cantelli, including his signature La Mer.
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major “Eroica” – Vienna Philharmonic Orch./ Wilhelm Furtwängler – Tahra
The CD layer is a slight improvement but the SACD layer is unlistenable.
SAMUEL BARBER Historical Recordings, 1935-1960 = West Hill Radio Archives (8 CDs + CD-ROM)
One of America’s great lyrical composers receives a major retrospective in performances that resist age and retain their elemental, authentic power and spontaneity.
* DEBUSSY: La mer; Jeux; Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun – London Symphony Orchestra/ Valery Gergiev – LSO Live
****** MULTICHANNEL DISC OF THE MONTH *****
The Artistry of Josef Gingold, violin = LALO, SCHUBERT, ARENSKY, BLOCH, FRANCAIX, MAEKLEBERGHE, BEETHOVEN, MOZART, YSAYE & TCHAIKOVSKY – Enharmonic Records (2 CDs)
The art of concertmaster extraordinaire–Josef Gingold finds a fitting testimonial on recordings and radio transcriptions made 1941-1979.
Memorial Tribute to Toscanini = BACH: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2; Passacaglia and Fugue; VIVALDI: Concerto Grosso; ROSSINI: String Symphony No. 3 – Toscanini – Guild
A fascinating tribute to Arturo Toscanini, organized after his death in a limited edition and now a revelation of Maestro’s conscientious working methods.
LISZT: From the Cradle to the Grave; Three Funeral Odes; Two Episodes from Lenau’s Faust – BBC Scottish Sym. Orch./ Glasgow Singers/Ilan Volkov – Hyperion
A darker mortality-conscious Liszt provided in rich tones from conductor Ilan Volkov, including the Lenau’s Faust episodes presented as the composer preferred.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
