Arturo Tostanini: The Farewell Concert at La Scala

• Main performer: Arturo Toscanini
• Booklet languages: Italian, English
• Time: 125:20

Review

Arturo Toscanini gave his farewell performance at La Scala on September 19, 1952, and the historic two-hour concert was broadcast by Radiotelevisione Italiana. This double disc from Idis presents the complete all-Wagner program with the announcer's introductions in Italian, so for all intents and purposes this is what listeners heard on their radios that evening. As one might imagine, the music sounds quite distorted and boxy, even by recording standards of the time, and the noises of the audience and steady tape hiss make this package a specialty item for collectors of Toscaniniana. Still, even the most skeptical music lover can get something out of Toscanini's robust interpretations; while the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano doesn't sound like the world's finest ensemble for this repertoire, the players certainly throw everything they've got into the music. The popular orchestral versions of sections extracted from Wagner's music dramas will be familiar to most, and though Toscanini made better sounding recordings of the Prelude to Die Meistersinger, Siegfried's Rhine Journey, and the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, among several other favorites, there is abundant energy and musicality in these performances to make listening pleasurable, once all the audio defects are put out of mind. Even so, there are some places where the applause is outrageously loud, so be prepared to make a few volume adjustments. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Spoken Word	Speaker of the Italian RAI	15:05
Richard Wagner	Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, opera, WWV 96 (Overture)	9:55
Richard Wagner	Siegfried, opera, WWV 86c (Forest Murmurs)	8:40
Richard Wagner	Siegfried Idyll, for small orchestra in E major, WWV 103	18:12
Richard Wagner	Die Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), opera, WWV 86d (Siegfried's Rhine Journey)	12:51
Spoken Word	Speaker of the Italian RAI	0:36
Spoken Word	Speaker of the Italian RAI	4:21
Richard Wagner	Parsifal, opera, WWV 111 (Good Friday Spell)	11:38
Richard Wagner	Die Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), opera, WWV 86d (Funeral Music)	14:47
Richard Wagner	Tristan und Isolde, opera, WWV 90 (Prelude and Liebestod)	18:50
Richard Wagner	Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), opera, WWV 86b (The Ride of the Valkyries)	9:49
Spoken Word	Speaker of the Italian RAI	0:36

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