For today I listened to something Italian, something German, and something French. To my knowledge no wars broke out, and their musical currency remains strong.
Cimarosa: Il matrimonio pre raggiro Overture - November 12th, 1949
This is a delightful little comic overture, and Toscanini makes the most of its proto-Rossinian wit. But considering that this recording comes from the one performance Toscanini ever gave of this music in the United States, the work can't have had that much appeal to him.
Schumann: Symphony No. 3 - November 12th, 1949
I admit that Schumann is not a composer I generally feel a strong pull towards. I've always found his music to be a bit dull and lacking in spice. I am, however, genuinely moved by Schumann's finest passages, which have a passionate drive that is exhilarating and filled with life force. His Symphony No. 3 is a work with many of those fine passages.This symphony generally leaves me very satisfied despite several lengthy sections that are a bit listless to my ears.
By all accounts Toscanini had a very similar view of Schumann. Beyond single performances of the Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 4 (both with the New York Philharmonic), only three works of Schumann were a part of Toscanini's repertory: the Manfred Overture and Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3. B. H. Haggin also recalled a time when Toscanini sang a passage from the Symphony No. 4 in a rather mocking tone, suggesting that this piece was, to put it mildly, not one of the conductor's favorites.
Of the three Schumann works Toscanini conducted, the Rhenish Symphony was the one he turned to most often. His accounts of this symphony were widely considered to be of a consistently very high level. This 1949 recording documents his last performance of this work, and it is a beautiful one. Robert C. Marsh even calls it "one of the great Toscanini performances." Hmm. While I admire this recording very much for the brilliant way in which it treats the forward-moving exhilaration of the work's finest passages, I still can't escape the feeling that Toscanini felt he was conducting a second-rate symphony.
Although I myself would not put this work onto my Top 10 or even Top 100 list, if I'm going to listen to the Schumann Third I want to hear it conducted by a True Believer. James Levine is one of those believers, and the recordings of this symphony he has led with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic are perfect examples of how compelling Schumann's orchestra can be. Levine also avoids the temptation to touch-up Schumann's orchestration, unlike most of his colleagues. Realizing the unique symphonic timbres of this music at its face value clearly show how original Schumann was when he was at his best.
Toscanini was not a True Believer, but he knew what he liked. This Schumann reading is remarkable for its rhythmic strength and richness of sonority, qualities that don't exist in the recordings of works the conductor performed only grudgingly. Nonetheless, there are many other Toscanini recordings more deserving of being called Great.
Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2 - November 21st, 1949
This is the only Ravel work of which Toscanini made an approved recording. He also performed La Valse three times with the NBC Symphony, but apparently did not approve any of these broadcasts for commercial release.
Although you get the sense that Toscanini was genuinely trying his best in Daphnis and Chloe, he just doesn't seem to really have had his heart in this music. Gunther Schuller complains about the woodwind rivulets that open the work being treated like virtuoso exercises in Toscanini's hands, while NBC bassist David Walter reported that the conductor had some difficulty with the 5/4 rhythms of the Danse générale. This is still an exciting reading, containing all of the drive and precision you would expect in a fine Toscanini performance. But ultimately this recording is lacking in substance. As in the Schumann symphony above, Toscanini just doesn't seem to have been a True Believer in this music. That's fine, really. There are many other recordings that show Toscanini at his greatest, and that's enough for me.
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That's it for Day 49!
Check back tomorrow for some very heroic magic flutes and lamps.
Happy Wednesday!
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