Arturo Toscanini Collection, Volumes 67-70: The Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings

• Main performer: Arturo Toscanini
• Time: 221:19
• Release Date: 1990

Review

This four-CD set, the contents of which are also available as four separate discs, is derived from a now mostly forgotten interruption in Arturo Toscanini's tenure with the NBC Symphony that took place in 1941-1942, owing to various festering disagreements with the orchestra's management. The disputes were subsequently resolved and his estrangement from the NBC Symphony didn't last, but for most of 1941 and the beginning of 1942, after writing a letter of resignation to NBC, the conductor accepted engagements elsewhere, including the opportunity to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra in a series of concerts that led to the recordings at hand. As it happened, the notion of Toscanini conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra wasn't that far out of left field -- he had done so in 1930 during his tenure with the New York Philharmonic, exchanging podiums with Leopold Stokowski late that year to great critical and audience acclaim for both conductors. As it turns out, the recordings here are all worth hearing, drawing together the lush string sound of the orchestra and Toscanini's penchant for precision, and they also benefit greatly from the warm acoustic of Philadelphia's Academy of Music, which had none of the dryness of NBC's Studio 8-H, from which most of Toscanini's performances with the NBC Symphony originated. Representing repertory that was central to Toscanini's art at the podium, from Berlioz to Respighi, the recordings are also notable for their energy; the jewel is the Schubert Great C major Symphony, with the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream overture and incidental music a close second, the latter benefiting especially from the orchestra's incredibly nimble winds. But all of it is worthwhile as the work of an invigorated and forceful Toscanini, who seems to have drawn new energy from the change of scenery and the orchestra's obvious enthusiasm. It all comes out in the playing and the overall feel of the performances, which, on the whole, are more compelling than the equivalent renditions by the NBC orchestra. That said, however, there is also one technical deficiency in this set that must be addressed -- RCA apparently did this group of CDs a bit on the cheap, relying on a late-'70s LP remastering of the original 78 rpm releases as the source, instead of going back to original 78s for entirely new transfers, as they seem to have done with most of the rest of this series. This may have been necessary -- it's entirely possible that the original sources were impossible to locate for the CD release -- but an explanation should have been forthcoming, because there are higher noise levels here, from flawed surfaces and other imperfections, than exist in most of the rest of this series. As it is, the sound quality is better than fair, especially allowing for the vintage of the performances, and the volume boosts up well and cleanly, but on the quieter passages of most every work represented here, it's impossible to entirely ignore the imperfections. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Claude Debussy	La Mer, symphonic sketches (3) for orchestra, L. 109	22:28
Claude Debussy	Work(s) (Unspecified)	18:18
Ottorino Respighi	Feste romane (Roman Festivals), symphonic poem, P. 157	23:23
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky	Symphony No. 6 in B minor ("Pathétique"), Op. 74	42:42
Richard Strauss	Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 24 (TrV 158)	23:30
Franz Schubert	Symphony No. 9 in C major ("The Great"), D. 944	45:39
Felix Mendelssohn	A Midsummer Night's Dream, incidental music, Op. 61	37:02
Hector Berlioz	Roméo et Juliette, for alto, tenor, bass, chorus & orchestra ("symphonie dramatique"), H.79 (Op. 17) (Scherzo (La Reine Mab))	8:17

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