Search - Haydn, Toscanini, NBC :: Symphonies 84, 88 & ,98

5 Stars for 88th & 98th; 2 or 3 Stars only for 94th!

10/06/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The 8 March 1938 commercial recording of the G Major Symphony (which, in the days of 78s, was known -- I seem to recall from the shellac set of this performance -- as 'B&H No. 13') preserved one of the all-time great readings of this piece. For more expansion and lyricism, one turns to the great stereo interpretation by Bruno Walter (or to the NY Phil edition by Leonard Bernstein); for robust majesty, to the Furtwaengler/BPO recording in much better monaural sound than this Toscanini 78. Yet the old Italian Maestro here demonstrates his deep sympathy with Haydn, whom he loved and identified with more than Mozart (the latter being "too perfect", he is said to have claimed.) Modern audiophiles will be unimpressed with the Studio 8-H acoustic in the stark, dramatic pauses of the Largo movement; but this adds to the austere grandeur of the performance for me, a hopeless technical Luddite who would rather hear a great musician play than a nonentity given digital tonal perfection.The 98th Symphony performance (25 May 1945) is even better -- starker and more Beethovenian where appropriate -- than the live NBC concert of 22 January 1938 on Relief CR-1832. Never issued on American LP records, this 1945 shellac set languished until it finally turned up just before the CD era on a Japanese Victor 33.3 rpm album. The present compact disk transfer sounds EXACTLY like that set: a somewhat brighter Studio 8-H sound, with clearer overtones than my own copy of the old 78 disks, but -- sad to say -- with slightly noisier surfaces than my set of the disks. Yet with a slight treble rolloff, the playback is quite acceptable, and one can revel in the rugged power of this big-boned work, though one must expect the "tight as a box" sound quality (and, it should be noted, that one side of the final movement was overdubbed by Victor for the original 1945 issue, with what sounds like a correcting insert, perhaps from the 1938 broadcast, a task that was difficult to accomplish in 78 days without considerable loss of transparency in the final pressing.)As in the classic Beecham/RPO recording of the fifties, the text used is "corrupt" compared to the modern work of scholars...yet Toscanini manages to distill much of the delightful humor of the last movement, with its fits and starts, delectable concertmaster's turn (Mischa Mischakoff is wonderful here), and pointed suspensions and jokes. Only the lack of a cembalo disappoints one used to modern renditions, for Toscanini's propulsive tempi resemble the no-nonsense pacing of a Norrington or Hogwood.The Symphony No. 94 was recorded on 26 January 1953 in the richer resonance of Carnegie Hall on 30 ips high fidelity magnetic tape, and after the tinny shellacs, the refulgence of sound is luminous and deeply satisfying. Yet the reading is peculiar: surely NO conductor has bequeathed as bizarrely hectic a Menuetto as Toscanini does in this breathless dash. But the Andante with its surprise joke is satisfactorily rumbustious without going "over the top" in tempo. There is a live broadcast by the Maestro with more reasonable pacing, done in June of 1943, but it is in poor sound and may not be commonly available. Consider this "Surprise" reading a Toscanini 'party record' to play for "haters" to confirm their prejudices against the Maestro's rapid tempi."