Arturo Toscanini: The Complete Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings 1941-42

A long time coming, and a revelation

For those of us who have grown impatient with the dry, boxy sonics of Studio 8-H and also with the tense, unyielding approach to music that increasingly became the norm for Toscanini after WW II, the recordings he made in Philadelphia have been a hope and a promise. The promise was that the orchestra sounded positively lush compared to the NBC Sym., the hope was that the corroded masters from that wartime era could be somehow salvaged.

Up to now the hope was unfulfilled, but Sony/BMG has brought these legendary recordings to life. This isn't modern sound by any means, but compared to the products from Studio 8-H, here the strings sound sweet, the acoustic is spacious, there is air around the instruments, and the overall balance sounds true to life. One can only express gratitude at this accomplishment. It makes amends for RCA's horrible CD transcriptions of its Toscanini archive in the past.

As for the performances, other reviewers here detect smaller differences from their NBC counterparts than I do -- to my ears, these readings are decidedly more flexible and yielding. The reason that Toscanini ventured to Philly is that he got angry with musicians moonlighting from the NBC band on extra assignments and quit in a huff. He soon returned to his main orhestra, but we are hugely fortunate that he took this detour in 1942. If you want to judge whether there's enough musical difference to warrant a purchase, I think the touchstone is the Schubert Sym. #9. In its Philadelphia version Toscanini's approach is tensile, swift, full of discipline and nervous energy, but it doesn't cross the line and beome frenetic and wiry the way his later NBC reading does. For the first time in many years, I felt I got a glimpse of why the most famous of conductors enraptured his audiences. July 21, 2007

Toscanini + Philadelphia = Must Have

Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski briefly switched podiums in 1941. Stokowski's stint with the NBC Symphony Orchestra is largely forgotten, but Toscanini's recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra were the stuff of legend even before they were released in 1963.

The recordings were quite problematic, sonically. The initial 78rpm discs had defects (including off center pressings, which caused the pitch to waver) and were not stored in optimal conditions. It took recording engineers 1,000 hours of work time to make the Schubert C Major Symphony sonically acceptable. Even so, the recordings did not sound good, with screeching strings, unsteady pitch, and an occasional muddy quality.

It's a bit of hyperbole to claim that Toscanini's Philadelphia Orchestra recordings have gone from the worst to the best sounding. Did they ever really sound as bad as the La Scala Orchestra acoustical recordings? Do they sound better than RCA's recent remasterings of his later NBC recordings? No, and no. However, there is no denying that Sony/BMG's new remastering is far superior to the 1990 reissue. Frequency response and clarity are improved, and the strings have gained some tonal allure.

The performances bear the typical Toscanini hallmarks (phrasing, tempo, and unanimity of attack), while still sounding like the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Schubert C Major Symphony and Debussy selections have a slightly more relaxed, flexible quality than his later NBC recordings. Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream selections (including the rarely heard "Ye Spotted Snakes") are charming and transparent, while Resphigi's Feste Romane is orgiastic. The Strauss Death and Transfiguration, while a strong performance, does not have the shattering impact of Toscanini's 1952 NBC recording. Perhaps the highlight of the set is the performance of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony, far more flexible and yearning than either the studio or live NBC versions (the latter in early stereo, but with some slipshod orchestral playing).

Sony/BMG has managed to fit the entire contents onto three mid-priced CDs, as opposed to the four discs of the 1990 issue. Highest recommendation.

March 4, 2007

Among the best classical recordings of all time. Essential. (Warning: May be addictive.)

After living with this set for a few months, my main complaint is that I can't find more time to spend listening to it!

The restoration is better than a few 30-second fragments on the internet led me to believe: The 78 rpm ticks and crackle I remember from the LP set, while tolerable, are gone, and only at intervals is there an odd noise or fuzzy passage to remind you when these performances were recorded. A fine restoration! Beautiful!

And what performances they are! Anyone who can't understand the fuss over Toscanini from these recordings never will. Wonderfully enlivened music, right down to the small details, fitting naturally into the progression, which seems to go of itself.

At $30, a great bargain. But if you find yourself neglecting other things in life after they arrive, don't say I didn't warn you! January 17, 2007

Stunning remastering, just a few glitches

These recordings, made in 1941-42, have suffered for years from the worst sond imaginable. Though recorded with splendid natural balance at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the original metal masters were somehow accidentally corroded using inferior wartime processing, which resulted in pressings that had ticks, pops, swishes and grinding noises. In 1963 an RCA Victor engineer spent about 1,000 hours de-ticking the Schubert 9th, which was issued on a Soria Series LP, but in 1976 RCA issued the complete set with such terrible sound that the recordings were usually junked. During the big Toscanini CD reissue project circa 1990, these masters were minimally cleaned up by RCA-BMG, so that they still sounded terrible.

But now, they have been remastered anew, and the sound is incredible. Granted, there is still some inherent surface noise, particularly in the first two sides of "Death and Transfiguration" and a few places in the "Midsummer Night's Dream" music, but otherwise the sound is STUNNING - clear, full, natural, with lots of hall ambience and perfectly natural section balances.

The performances herein vary in quality, but my favorites are the "Death and Transfiguration," "La Mer," "Iberia," "Queen Mab Scherzo," "Midsummer Night's Dream" and the Tchaikovsky 6th.

Highly recommended. These have now gone from being the worst-sounding of all Toscanini commercial recordings to the BEST-sounding, virtually overnight. December 5, 2006

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