Today's listening encompassed the first three works that Toscanini recorded in his seventh season at NBC.
Cimarosa: Overture to The Secret Marriage - November 14th, 1943
This is certainly a spirited performance, featuring a brisk tempo and bright sonorities that avoid getting bogged down into overwrought intensity, as many of Toscanini's Mozart performances do at times. This overture may not be top-drawer repertoire, but a reading like this allows it come to life in a natural and compelling way.
The Spokane Symphony played the Secret Marriage overture about three years ago in a concert that was titled "Mozart's Rivals," which I guess implied that Cimarosa was considered a serious rival for Mozart (a pretty amusing thought, actually). I recall that a violinist in the orchestra who shall remain nameless expressed the view that the title of this opera really ought to be Wedding Secrets. I'm still not sure exactly what that means, but it sounds like the kind of thing that is probably illegal in many countries.
Verdi: Hymn of the Nations - December 8th and 20th, 1943
Virtually every Toscanini biography I have read describes this piece as a "potboiler". In a sense, I suppose that is an accurate assessment, but it makes for fascinating listening as part of the wartime ethos in which Toscanini performed it. This curious work is a sort of mini-cantata in which a chorus and tenor soloist first sing about the celestial realm of peace (this was the first collaboration between Verdi and librettist Arrigo Boito), and then break out into a medley of national anthems. Verdi included Il Canto deli Italiani, the Marseillaise, and God Save the Queen in his piece, to which Toscanini added The Star-Spangled Banner and the Internationale in order to have the American and Soviet allies represented as well. Toscanini also made one key alteration to the Italian hymn, changing "Italia, patria mia" (Italy, my country) to "Italia, patria mia tradita" (Italy, my betrayed country). The result is a fascinating document of wartime propaganda. The patriotic fervor of the performers is clearly completely genuine, and in its own way this is quite a moving performance.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 - March 12th, 1944
Wow, this is intense! This is also much better than Toscanini's recording of the Leningrad Symphony from twenty months earlier. About two weeks ago I took issue with the neo-verismo style the NBC Symphony employed in a recording of Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, a performance that seemed to me overwrought with misplaced intensity. They play with a similar style in this Shostakovich recording, but here it is used to tremendous effect.
Toscanini was not at ease in Shostakovich's idiom; although he clearly respected the composer's work, Toscanini did not feel an inner-pull toward this music. He admitted as much in a letter sent to Leopold Stokowski during the negotiations to determine which conductor would lead the American premiere of the Leningrad Symphony, in which Toscanini acknowledged that he did not love Shostakovich's music in the same way as Stokowski. The anti-fascist meaning of the Leningrad Symphony was the chief reason Toscanini badly wanted to conduct its American premiere, rather than any deep feeling for the music.
Nonetheless, Toscanini had enough appreciation for the music of Shostakovich to program his Symphony No. 1 several times. He lived with this symphony longer than he lived with the Leningrad, and understood it much more comprehensively. I suspect the style of this performance is not exactly "authentic", but it is very compelling. The second movement in particular is played with a ferocious energy I have never heard in any other performance, while the third movement is sustained with an astonishing operatic cantabile.
Following this recording Toscanini would never again touch the music of Shostakovich. We'll never know how he would have conducted the Symphony No. 5 or 10 or the Festive Overture - which is fine, actually. Toscanini may have not loved this music or shown devotion to its dissemination, but his meager and uneven Shostakovich legacy is extremely compelling in its own way.
..................................................................................................................................................
That's it for Day 24! Tomorrow will bring Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 and the third act of Rigoletto.
Have a great Saturday!
No comments:
Post a Comment