Day 73: PIctures Of An Exhibitionist

Hey everyone! Welcome to Day 73!

Today's listening brought two overtures, a surprising symphony, and some titillating pictures.

Beethoven: Egmont Overture - January 19th, 1953

The best performances of this overture are characterized by a carefully modulated transition from darkness to light that never lose a sense of inevitability. Toscanini's tight-fisted approach to this work prevents such a realization, and instead make it sound coldly clinical. I doubt Beethoven would have approved.

Rossini: William Tell Overture - January 19th, 1953

This is an excellent performance, but what struck me most was the extraordinary quality of the recorded sound. RCA really stepped up to the plate for this one, and produced a recording that beautifully recreates every nuance of the Toscanini sound. The pictorial aspects of the overture are played with powerfully vivid colors by the NBC Symphony, and immaculately reproduced in this top-notch CD release.

Haydn: Symphony No. 94 - January 26th, 1953

This Surprise Symphony is no surprise, really. All in all this is one of Toscanini's most satisfying and energetic recordings of an 18 century symphony, but it lacks the element of surprise that gives the work its name. A shame really, because in many ways this performance is so right in its focused drive, yet falls short right where it needs the theatrical element Toscanini should have been the perfect man to provide. What should have left me surprised ended up leaving me slightly queasy.

Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition - January 26th, 1953

I don't agree with everything Toscanini does to this score, but there is no denying its visceral power. The maestro often called the Ravel version of this work history's greatest treatise on orchestration, but this did not stop him from altering significant portions of that orchestration. The Great Gate of Kiev, for example, has numerous details changed, including brass lines reassigned to the strings and numerous additions being made to the timpani part. The result is undeniably impressive in its resultant sonority, though I think Ravel's original is more precisely calculated in its range of effects. In short, as impressive a piece of work as this recording is, it should not be considered a fully successful statement of Ravel's intentions as orchestrator.

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That's it for Day 73!

Check back tomorrow for a whole new world of great symphonies.

Happy Saturday!