Search - Vivaldi, Toscanini, Bach :: Toscanini Conducts Baroque & Classical

Purists: Fake Stereo & Echo Abounds in This Transfer!

09/15/1998

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This "Iron Needle" CD containing baroque and classical period works from live performances by Arturo Toscanini is a desecration that would make the angels weep! It has been fashionable for 4 decades to decry RCA Victor engineers for "ruining" Toscanini's recordings. But the complete RCA/BMG Toscanini Edition was at last a faithful and respectful treatment of the original master disks and tapes of these historic performances. Would that this "bootleg" label was as attentive to the clarity and quality of the original old recordings!Those of us who might unwittingly buy it should be warned of the dreadful audio desecration that has been committed on some of the greatest interpretations of the Maestro, from live broadcasts that have not been widely distributed or known, of repertoire that will be fresh and exciting to collectors who have been content to obtain only the commercial disks.As exciting as the performances are, the sound transfers completely ruin the instrumental definition (even covering up some lines altogether), alter the ambience and instrumental balances, and introduce peculiar phase shifts and phony stereophonic echo that turn the performances into a painful caricature of the original source recordings. The Vivaldi was the opening work of the first Toscanini NBC program. The sound of the original broadcast, to judge from the faithful LP transfers of the old Clyde Key American Toscanini Society, was harsh and cold, with an utterly dead acoustical ambience that was gradually but very slightly improved over the following several seasons of NBC broadcasts. The Toscanini interpretation is far more strict than the two syrupy 78 rpm recordings of the work that were available in the late 40s. Toscanini was quite fond of this severe, dramatic, and tragic Vivaldi piece, which he performed in 1926, 1937, and 1954. The CD transfer of the first Toscanini NBC concert on "The Radio Years" series on Enterprice RY 13 has somewhat faked stereo high-low frequency phase shift but not much added echo, and is tolerable; however, this Iron Needle transfer has so much phony echo that the dry 8-H acoustic becomes a rumbling and confused jumble of sound as if recorded in the toilet of the Grand Central Station in New York!The Henry Wood transcription of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor is an extrovert and powerful rendering, but more sober and reasonable than the flashy Stokowski orchestral traversal. Many of the live 1935-6 New York Philharmonic Toscanini programs -- as replicated on old, terribly scratchy and distorted amateur aircheck disks, presumably taken from Marcia Davenport's private collection -- caught Maestro in some rather severe and clipped interpretations. But this particular reading is one of the conductor's most vital and thrilling renditions: the orchestra attacks and conquers the piece, throwing off sparks and flames! Unfortunately, Iron Needle's engineers subjected the recording -- which one intuits to be, underneath the digital effluvia, nearly the equal of the 1936 RCA commercial Beethoven 7th -- to grotesque processing effects. A phony stereo ambient echo is ladled on to fool us into thinking this is a two-channel master; severe noise reduction constantly plays with the partials and overtones, and introduces a "gargling" sound in the fundamentals in the range of several hundred Hertz; I even suspect some manual "pan potting" at climaxes to throw the balances over to the left or right channels. There is a strange, affecting digital audio delay of about 50 to 100 milliseconds introduced between the left and right channels of the audio tracks: every note played on the left side is almost immediately echoed on the right. The Toccata & Fugue is also available in the 10-disk CD set of historic New York Philharmonic broadcasts, lovingly restored by Seth Winner. There is a single-disk sampler CD of this expensive collection, containing the same T&F rendition, in genuine undoctored monaural sound (using Cedar processing ONLY to remove a slight amount of ticks and pops, but not highs.) I would not be surprised to discover that this provided the original source for the Iron Needle, with all kinds of audio desecration added to make it sound "different". Use either of the NYP disk copies to evaluate this great interpretation, and shun the present Iron Needle transfer.In listening to the present rendition of the 1947 NBC broadcast of the Respighi transcription of the Passacaglia & Fugue in C Minor, one can tell that underneath all of the digitized phony stereo distortion, phase shift, Cedaring, and ping-pong ambience that the original source recording is at least as good as the Clyde Key LP, or even better! Yet, as the awful transfer plays, one cringes at the modern technical artifacts, aware at each moment that the sound is totally bogus, coarse, blowsy, and distorted. I played around with listening to separate left and right channel audio tracks, and mixing them to L+R in varying proportions: the best result was dead mono, but then the ping-pong delay is heard clearly, and phasy comb-filtering of the midrange constantly fluctuates in and out, like a bad audio cassette with a defective pressure pad. The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 performance has aged well. On rehearing the reading after fifteen years of exposure to period instrument versions, the Toscanini now seems "right"! Disregarding the expressiveness in the wind playing -- definitely 'out' in historic performance recreations -- many other aspects of this Toscanini reading are in keeping with modern artistic views. There is also an extant aircheck of a PSNY performance with an alto saxophone instead of trumpet, but I believe that this NBC reading is superior and has much more immediate sound. However, the present transfer is, again, sadly inferior to older Clyde Key LP and "bootleg" tapes. Now, finally, to the ultimate and most execrable pustulence of this terrible and disrespectful CD edition! The early Haydn "Hornsignal" Symphony No. 31 is one of the most fresh, charming, and engaging of the Haydn canon. The first movement is resplendant with fanfares and flourishes; the menuet is a robust "public" dance; and the lengthy finale is a set of theme-and-variations before the final rush of the Presto coda, echoing the hornsignal calls of the opening movement. The Toscanini NBC broadcast of Oct. 29, 1938 was preserved (according to Robert C. Marsh) on one lone set of orphaned acetate disks, the first side of which sported a hideous gouge for the full fifteen minute duration. Yet when the broadcast was issued by the Toscanini Society on LP, there was almost NO trace of any ticks or pops in the master recording. What was such a revelation in the Clyde Key LP edition was the clear evidence of the vivid and prominent use of a harpsichord continuo! According to the original radio announcements of NBC's Gene Hamilton, the artist was Yella Pessl (who is not credited on the Iron Needle CD). Indeed, so WRETCHED is this transfer that the harpsichord is all but inaudible except in certain spots, most prominently in the finale. In the original LP edition, the sound balance was utterly perfect, with complete clarity of all sections of the ensemble, enabling the listener to savor the rich, relaxed, and extroverted reading. The NBC instrumentalists were brilliant, and the conducting was joyous and free, with touches of 'tempo rubato' and tasteful portional spotlighting that differentiated sections of the movements' sonata form. The menuet was taken at a moderate, almost "Bruno Walterish" swagger, not the hysterical clip of the 1953 commercial Toscanini "Surprise" Symphony recording. The finale is a ten-minute romp of soloistic virtuosity by the strings, winds, harpsichordist, concert master Mischakoff, and indeed the conductor! However, the Iron Needle engineers have turned up the phony stereo ambience to at least TWICE the level that has marred the previous tracks of the CD; the harpsichord -- so adventuresome and intelligent a contribution for a classical performance from the late 1930s -- is almost completely covered up by waves of echo, and lost in the woolly, overfiltered midrangy sound spectrum; but the original source disks are clear and precise, with overtones and partials as high as the mechanical technology would allow (at least 8 or 9 khZ!) I heartily urge all Toscanini fans to AVOID purchasing this ruinous artifact! A better CD transfer (sounding somewhat more full- bodied than even the old Clyde Key LP) is the genuine mono copy on Relief CR-1842, containing also live broadcasts by Toscanini of the Haydn Symphonies Nos. 88 and 98. Here, the "Hornsignal" can make its best possible sonic impact, reminding us that even as early as 1938, audio technology had advanced sufficiently to be able to present a clear, enjoyable, and accurate recording of a classical orchestra playing music having a limited dyn"