Hey everyone! Welcome to Day 53!
For today I listened to a Spanish dance written by a Russian, and two Austrian symphonies written by, well, Austrians. I guess the Russians just don't find Austria to be all that exotic. At least the Austrians make great energy drinks.
Glinka: Jota aragonesa - March 4th, 1950
This piece has been described as the father of Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol, and that is a pretty fair assessment. This music does have its charm, despite some rather haphazard construction. Toscanini conducts the work with great vitality and intelligence, but this recording is more remarkable as a document for how far the NBC Symphony had come in its twelve years of existence.
Even in the finest moments of their early years, this orchestra did not possess the same richness of sonority and tonal weight of the world's great orchestras. Though the NBC Symphony never did quite reach the level of ensembles like the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic (to cite two of the other orchestras with which Toscanini recorded) in this regard, by 1950 they had developed a powerful cohesion of ensemble and superb depth of sound. This 1950 recording of Glinka's Jota aragonesa is a perfect example of the extent to which they had improved. The winds are in perfect balance, and the strings play with more unanimity of attack than in any recording I have yet listened to from this ensemble. This is not a great piece of music, but it is a great showpiece for a great orchestra.
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 - March 12th, 1950
Mozart's Symphony No. 40 was the first work Toscanini recorded with the NBC Symphony, and that early effort was so brutal in its execution that even hardened prison inmates would have fled from it in terror. This later recording from 1950 is more gentle in execution, but it also lacks flexibility and is a bit too self-consciously symphonic for my taste. The light, elegant approach that is widely and uncritically applied to Mozart by default drives me absolutely crazy, but the full-bodied approach of Toscanini is misapplied, in my view. The conductor once admitted that the Symphony No. 40 was the only Mozart work (outside of the concertos) that he did not find "boring", and that he considered it "great tragedy." That may be, but every tragedy has moments of repose that place the pain in perspective. Toscanini may have liked this piece more than most 18th century music, but it cannot go down as a work he led with great sympathy.
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 - March 12th and June 2nd, 1950
It always drives me nuts to hear this piece played with the ponderous, back-of-the-beat weight it is given in most performances. The first movement may be marked Allegro moderato, but it is still an Allegro, not a slow movement. I was very happy to hear Toscanini's tempo for this movement, which is forward-moving enough to give this piece the power and intensity it deserves. This tempo is a bit unyielding, however, and at times devolves into the unfeelingly rigid execution Toscanini lapsed to in his worst moments. The first movement is also marred by the poor intonation of timpanist Karl Glassman, whose upper drum F# is cringe-inducingly flat. Why did Toscanini not correct this? Beats the hell out of me.
The second movement is much better (I believe this was what was recorded in the March session). Where the first movement was rigid, the Andante con moto is flexible and rich in tonal beauty. The wind soloists are particularly good in this music, and the strings play with a singing cantabile that moves when it needs to and stands still when the score reaches its moments of pastoral stasis.
As these two movements were recorded several months apart, it should perhaps not be surprising that they don't really mesh together as the finest NBC recordings do. But at its best, this recording is fully representative of Toscanini's finest work. It is just a bit marred by a few bumps in the road.
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That's it for Day 53!
Check back tomorrow for a river trip, a North African adventure and a visit from Mickey Mouse. It'll be buckets of fun.
Happy Sunday!
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