Wagner: Orchestral Excerpts

• Main performer: Arturo Toscanini
• Booklet languages: English, French, German
• Time: 73:52
• Release Date: 2006

Review

This is not just any old Toscanini conducts Wagner disc -- the kind RCA routinely fobbed off on the record-buying public in the 50s and 60s and then again in the '80s and '90s. Instead of the usual program of excerpts from the Ring, Meistersinger, and Tristan drawn from the usual assortment of studio and live broadcast performances, this disc contains music Toscanini rarely performed and recorded: the original version of the Act III Prelude to Tannhäuser plus -- wonder of wonders -- a symphonic synthesis of six Parsifal excerpts. (While symphonic syntheses of operas were fairly common until the Second World War, Toscanini the purest routinely disparaged such arrangements and refused to conduct them -- except, apparently, just this once.)

For fans of the conductor, rarely recorded Toscanini will be all they need to hear. Nor will they be disappointed. Although the recordings are taking from concerts performed in 1940, 1946, and 1953 with the NBC Symphony, the sound is better -- much deeper, clearer, and more realistic -- than most of Toscanini's NBC recordings. And Toscanini's performances have all the qualities of his best Wagner recordings, that is, intense to the point of rapture, exciting to the point of ecstasy, and dramatic to the point of catharsis. With the inclusion of Toscanini's last performance of the overture to Der fliegende Holländer, this disc will be mandatory for the conductor's many fans -- and quite interesting to listeners who are curious about the musical habits of the pre-war generation. ~ James Leonard, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Richard Wagner	Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), opera, WWV 63 (Overture)	10:51
Richard Wagner	Tannhäuser, opera, WWV 70 (Act 3. Prelude (Original version))	13:52
Richard Wagner	Parsifal, opera, WWV 111 (Act 1. Prelude)	13:19
Richard Wagner	Parsifal, opera, WWV 111 (Good Friday Spell)	11:23
Richard Wagner	Parsifal, opera, WWV 111 (Act 2. Prelude)	2:23
Richard Wagner	Parsifal, opera, WWV 111 (Act 3. Prelude)	5:47
Richard Wagner	Parsifal, opera, WWV 111 (Klingsor's Magic Garden)	8:20
Richard Wagner	Parsifal, opera, WWV 111 (Act 3. Finale)	7:57

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