For today I got to listen to two great Eastern European works with a Parma twist.
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 - November 24th, 1947
"He came to the rehearsal with the preconceived idea that the orchestra was set in its way of playing the symphony, and he was right. We came to…the D-Major melody, which traditionally we had all played with a ritardando on the first three notes. He stopped: 'Signori, perché? Why? Is written so, eh? Ancora.' We started again; and again we made the ritardando: it was so ingrained in us we couldn't help it. And he threw a fit. 'Si, tradizione! The first asino the first jackass did it that way and everyone follow him.' Then he pointed to the score: 'This is my tradizione! So play like this.'"
The rehearsal NBC violinist Josef Gingold (later to become concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra) referred to above marked the first time Toscanini had conducted the Pathétique Symphony in forty years. He had last conducted the music in 1898, when it was still very much contemporary music. There was no tradition for him to lean on in 1898; he still refused to take it into account in 1938, when he first conducted the symphony at NBC. Nine years later, when this recording was made, his mind had not changed.
Like many things, tradition can be either a blessing or a curse. Tradition can be the fabric that binds together the important moments of our lives, or it can leave you stuck in a rut and unable to make fresh discoveries that will benefit humankind. Musically speaking, tradition can keep alive a wealth of performance practice from a time before sound recording, or it can blind you to an artistic truth that has been obscured from decades or centuries of abuse.
Toscanini evidently felt that the Pathétique was such a work that had suffered from the abuse of time. Although the conductor was already twenty-six years old when Tchaikovsky's final symphony was first performed, it had become such a beloved work by the time he returned to it that the piece had become the very definition of effusive rhetoric. Is it wrong for the Pathétique to be interpreted in this manner?
There are no clear-cut answers to this. There is no question that this symphony is an expression of wrenching emotion, and it would be musically dishonest to interpret it with cool-headed rationalism. At the same time, Tchaikovsky's notations are extremely exacting. The score contains an enormous number of tempo modifications, the majority of which are reinforced with detailed metronome markings. It seems that the composer knew exactly how to obtain whatever effects he wanted out of an orchestra.
My own opinion is that Toscanini was absolutely on target with how to go about interpreting this symphony. It is all too easy for deeply-felt emotion to be twisted into soupy muck, and that is exactly how many performances transform this work from a gushing expression of pain into something ordinary.
Yet Tchaikovsky was not a composer Toscanini generally felt a strong pull towards, and that is a bit audible in this performance. Although Toscanini in most respects honors the composer's markings in an admirable way, I didn't leave with the impression that he really understood the meaning behind those markings. That does not make his interpretation wrong, and this is often a compelling performance. But it may well be that the search for the true meaning of Tchaikovsky's notations will remain an ongoing quest.
Kodály: Háry János Suite - November 29th, 1947
This is a terrific performance, and not one I would have expected from Toscanini. All of Kodály's splashy orchestral effects are exploited to the fullest, and carry great verve and intensity. The Song movement features a particularly effective solo from an unidentified cimbalom player. My only qualm is with the brass glissandos in The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon, which are a bit understated.
Kodály once said of Toscanini that "He could make living any work he would take in hand." When the conductor wanted to, he could always do just that.
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That's it for Day 44!
Check back tomorrow for a recording of the only opera I know of that is a namesake for a board game.
Happy Friday!
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