OVERVIEW of Toscanini GOLD SEAL SETS: Beethoven's Fidelio
A. F. T.
Gold Seal TOSCANINI COLLECTION.
BEETHOVEN: Fidelio (1944); Jan Peerce, Rose Bampton, Nicola Moscona,
Herbert Janssen, Sidor Belarsky, Eleanor Steber, Joseph Laderoute,
chorus directed by Peter Wilhousky. Vol. 54
This 2-disk set preserves two live broadcasts: Act I was transmitted
over NBC on December 10, 1944; Act 2 followed on Dec. 17. I believe
the first program was a few minutes beyond 60 minutes; the second was
a mite under an hour. Normally, a broadcast of a live performance
would be much longer, including intermission and extensive
commentaries. I heard the actual broadcast in a rare tape dub of the
FM simulcast, taken down on acetates in the NY area: the last time I
had the opportunity of auditing it was about 1990, so my recollection
is somewhat vague, and I do not have my friend's tape for immediate
reference: it had some of the announcements but no extensive remarks,
and there was no German dialog, the proceedings being somewhat
"condensed" and given at a fairly rapid clip; however, there were
minuscule natural pauses in the live transmission that have been
eliminated or shortened in both the LP and CD versions of the
commercial Victor issues, which makes the intensity seem a bit too
great, without the natural breathing-room: the result might seem a bit
stressful if one compares the pacing to a staged production.
I shall talk about the performance after I deal first with the
technical problems of the compact disk transfer.
The tape of the live broadcast radio aircheck that I heard was a
faithful and careful dub and editing of 33.3 rpm lacquers that had
been made, obviously, by a professional engineer, which were said to
have been recorded from W2XMN-FM, NBC's experimental FM transmitter
covering NY. The fidelity was amazing: highs as clear and extended as
the famous Columbia high fidelity transcription disks used to master
their classical material in the mid and late forties; sonics were also
comparable to the early ffrr recordings. The low end was rich and
full; the disks contained the actual sound of Studio 8H at its best,
and had no intrusive artificial echo: one could tell that the studio
DID have a lively room tone; though the reverberation decay was quite
short, it did add a "bloom" around the voices and help reinforce the
orchestral blend. Some other 8H recordings (particularly those made
around 1938) were not nearly as spacious: the acoustic seemed nearly
as effective as it was in Toscanini's Gershwin "American in Paris"
recording of 1945 (though of course, for that session, the chairs were
moved back and the hall was empty.) I would be interested to know if
Don Drewecki or anyone in the ng. has information about the miking:
the number of instruments and placing. I thought it to be quite
successful, with clarity of every syllable and coverage of almost
every musical detail.
So, if artificial echo has been added to the CD, as Richard Caniell of
the Immortal Performances Recorded Music Society asserts (it surely
WAS added to the old LM-6025, the Red Seal LP issue!) it is not
grossly objectionable here; the sound of the CD is in mono.
However, there IS a serious problem with the sound of the compact disk
version in the Gold Seal series. The old LM had very artificial,
muddy audio quality that was palpably "old-sounding", even back in the
late fifties. But I do not think that, despite its limited response
and very blowzy, long-decay echo chamber reverberation, that it was
quite as "colored" in the mid and upper midrange as this CD.
One is somewhat startled when first playing the Overture. There is a
rather nasty "cupped" quality to the middle frequencies, as though
something terrible is wrong with the speaker system (one imagines for
an instant that the fuse is blown in the midrange speaker, or
something is on the verge of feedback.) Compared to some other
pre-microgroove Toscanini recordings that have been transferred well
in this series, the Fidelio is an immediate let-down; at least it was
to me, right of the unaltered CD playback.
The coloration is especially noticeable to those of us who have heard
the FM source material from '44 airchecks. Those lacquer disks were
very pure and clear, but the surfaces were imperfect, with typical
33.3 rpm swishing and clicks and pops. Over a two hour period the
noise was somewhat fatiguing, as the transfer had been done with a
wide range response and had not been filtered. I doubt that this
particular source could be issued commercially; while there would be
some recipients who would be pleased by its "honesty", no critic or
general listener would be pleased. I can imagine the reviews!
I have no idea how the official RCA transcription disks made off the
Studio 8H direct audio feed sounded, or how noisy they may have been,
but there is NO significant noise in the CD on Gold Seal. For many
moments in almost all of the numbers in the opera, the "surfaces" are
as quiet as magnetic tape recordings. I listened to the entire opera
yesterday, on headphones, and did not notice any mechanical artifacts
for long periods of time: one forgets that it was taken down on disk.
I am sure that extreme labors of de-clicking were expended, and
insofar as there are no impulse noises, they were totally successful.
There is also a substantial amount of the high frequency transients
and overtones that were audible in the FM-sourced disks that provided
the alternative tape, so no crude low-pass filtering robbed the sound
of top end sparkle.
However, something was done to degrade the middle and upper mid
frequencies. Richard Caniell opines, in comparing the version of the
Leonore Overture No. 3 that was played during the broadcast (following
Mahler's convention), "this fiery exultant performance is *grievously*
marred on the CD by electronic tampering. A comparison A/B between
the original and the CD reveals the CD to be unpleasantly thin,
reduced in presence, constricted, tinny, attenuated in the bass end
and afflicted with an unnatural timbre at the top and raggedness.
This, too, is likely the result of being subjected to a digital
de-clicking and de-popping, which is also likely what's wrong with the
beginning of Act 1." He also points out that there is a shift in
frequency response from the beginning of the first act's Pizzaro-Rocco
duet (disk one, tr. 9) until the interpolation of the 1945 replacement
recording, made in Carnegie Hall, of "Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?"
(tr. 10), in order to match the characteristics of the two recordings;
Caniell explains that there is an increase in background ambience
enhancement leading up to the Carnegie Hall insert segment (which HAD
to be done were the performance ever to reach the public in permanent
form, all agreed, because of the disastrous flat last note by Rose
Bampton in this important scene; when hearing the actual aircheck one
cringes!) At least Caniell, in his careful comparison with the
original RCA source material, notes that the sonics are improved in
the final segment of the second act after the Leonore overture.
What is one to make of this if one has NO opportunity to hear an
alternative source? I have now heard the CD set about 6 times; I
could not estimate how many times I played the Red Seal over the
course of 25 or more years; and I know I heard the W2XMN recording at
least 3 times, with even more test playings of the overture segment.
So I felt that I was rather familiar with this set, and planned merely
to sample it yesterday so that I could post my comments today.
However, from the gripping attack of the overture, I was hooked! I
HAD to listen all the way through again, and I did so without
interruption. I started with speakers, and was thrilled with the
cracking electricity and vivid life of the playing, but somewhat
startled at the "cupped" and honky quality of the sound. I quickly
moved to my 12-band graphic equalizer, isolated the region of the
defects (which I suspect were introduced by a number of separate
stages of processing, rather than Caniell's claim of 'de-clicking')
and made some adjustments that improved the balances about 100%!
For what it's worth -- you may not agree on the basis of your taste or
the response of your speakers -- I found that a series of narrow
boosts and cuts, in the range of 1 to 3 kHz, done in an unorthodox
manner, tended to ameliorate much of the "cupped" sound.
Don Drewecki talked recently in the ng. about the "comb filtering"
interference effect of summed microphones with different phase
response properties. The processing used on the Fidelio has created
what sounds like a rather broad comb filtering effect, and I managed
to create a very generalized inverse filtering curve using my
12-db/octave graphic, which has bands that are fairly broad but cover
a bit less than one octave each. I set up my audio circuitry so that
the CD player drove the input to the graphic equalizer; then the
output drove my Nak preamp. I put the Nak into L+R mono mode, which
combined the OUTPUTS of the two channels of the equalizer (the
recording transfer is mono, with equal signal on each channel, driving
both channels of the equalizer.) I found that, with the output of
both equalized channels, I could create a sort of comb filter effect,
in a narrow inverse, of the "comb-filtered -sounding" input signal.
This would be done MUCH more efficiently with a parametric equalizer,
but I sold mine about 6 years ago, and no longer have any types except
graphics. The response curve I set up was this:
Frequency L Channel R Channel
36 Hz Flat Flat
63 Flat Flat
110 Flat Flat
190 Flat Flat
330 Flat Flat
580 Flat Flat
1000 Flat Flat
1700 -5 -3
3000 -12 +2
5300 +7 Flat
9000 +2 Flat
16000 Flat Flat
Now, remember that I have SUMMED the outputs of the two channels. The
filtering curves of each equalizer create a phase shift in the regions
where the equalizer bands are depressed or boosted; since I did not do
a similar adjustment on the OTHER channel, often doing a very
different one, I created a slight comb filtering effect, which adds
and cancels certain frequencies (not severely, as the curves are not
steep and the phase shift and amplitude is not extreme in most cases.)
But the sound was definitely much more carefully and narrowly
controlled than if I simply moved BOTH channel controls an equal
amount, or used only ONE channel. In effect, I used the separate
channels of the graphic to cause a slight "parametric" curvature
effect. I aimed to try to narrowly boost the strangely depressed and
colored region between 1 and 3 kHz. With a parametric I could do the
job better; but I did not have one. If YOU do, then you can probably
reclaim this affected region much easier and more accurately.
I also heard clear evidence of what Mike Gray has described as Cedar
processing "swissiness" in the quiet beginning of Disk 1, tr. 4, the
marvelous first act quartet, "Mir ist so wunderbar". I especially
noticed the middle-range hollowness in this particular part of the
recording. Yet the higher and lower frequencies are, despite
Caniell's overall objections, surprisingly firm and clear if you have
no immediate better comparison source. For example, in Disk 1 tr. 5
(Rocco's aria "Hat man nicht auch Gold daneben") there are very crisp
and natural vocal sibilance, and transparent instrumental details,
with full bass. With the correction, the sound was so marvelous and
natural that I was just amazed to contemplate that this was a radio
broadcast from 1944! I wish I hadn't been forced to fiddle and fiddle
with my adjustments to reach this point where I could forget about the
machinery and really enjoy the music, but at least it was POSSIBLE!
There are a few other noticeable defects from time to time: a slight
trace of harmonic distortion on the "edges" of voice peaks, such as
during Jan Peerce's "Euch werde Lohn in bessern Welten" (Act II, Disk
2, tr. 5.) It must be noted that this distortion is LESS evident
without my 'corrective equalization'; perhaps some of the original
foolery was intended to eliminate it or make it not quite as
noticeable by "rearranging" the spectral balance. I suspect that
Caniell is absolutely right about the changes "in and out" of the
"Abscheulicher!" insert and elsewhere, and that probably the digital
remaster engineers Arthur Fierro and William Lacey were quite busy
twisting their knobs. Adrian Cosentini and Seth Winner, of the
Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound (keepers of the
Toscanini Collection at the NY Public Library) are credited with the
original lacquers-to-tape transfer, as well as the processing of the
1945 disks of the "Abscheulicher!" remake. One must note that the
beginning of that excerpt, Disk 1 tr. 10, has the "hollowness" quite
prominently, and there is noticeable difference of quality, with more
radiance around the voice and a different character of orchestral body
consistent with Carnegie vs. Studio 8H: as a matter of fact, inner
voices and winds are BETTER defined in the Studio 8H source material
than in this Carnegie Hall segment. I am sure that the hollowness was
not introduced by Adrian and Seth, but by Fierro and Lacey, as part of
their clean-up.
The liner notes are inexplicit about the reconstructive process. The
recording was published in CD form in 1991; surely Cedar or other
computer programs for de-noising were in a more primitive stage of
development than they are today. I would GUESS that the original
Cedar or some prototype process very much like it (Soundstream?) was
used, with varying degrees of intrusion, during most of the transfer.
I experimented with the noise reduction module in CoolEdit a few
months ago, using a Furtwaengler recording, and found that at some
settings, I could create a very similar and extremely offensive
hollowness, though the noises would go away. I have no idea how
Cedar, NoNoise, or Soundstream differ in their action from CoolEdit's
noise reduction function, but I would guess that they all could
produce artifacts if used carelessly or excessively.
There does not seem to be any significant sustained surface swishing
or crackling in the recording (though I do, on headphones, sometimes
hear the tiniest remaining traces, such as the soft, low frequency
rushing in the start of Disk 1, tr. 11, the Prisoners' Chorus.) If
there had been any major disk damage, I dare say that NO noise
reduction program or circuit could remove it totally and leave almost
all of the high frequency partials; I believe it is possible that this
actual disk-to-tape transfer, undoctored, probably sounded almost
perfect, but that someone said "let's take out ALL the noise, no
matter how soft it is!" So they proceeded to alter the tonality as
well. De-clicking via Cedar will NOT produce a continual hollowness
or peculiar honky sound: both Marston and Obert-Thorn use the
de-clicking of Cedar without making their transfers sound that way.
Perhaps the Cedar (or other software, whatever it was) that the RCA
people had access to in 1991 was not as artifact-free. Or perhaps it
was new to the engineers, who had not fully experimented with it. I
am pretty certain that a re-transfer of this set can be done WITHOUT
the hollowness and coloration, and WITHOUT any impulse noises or
record surface grind. We have here the latter nicely corrected, at
the cost of the former degradation.
Can you live with this? I certainly can, as I have suffered with the
very unsatisfactory Red Seal LP and wished often that I could have
something better. I think the Gold Seal, with my correction, IS
better than the Red Seal vinyl set. The true Toscanini addict will
get the Gold Seal now, and wait for another BMG transfer, hoping that
it will be improved. NO one who cares about Beethoven or his only
opera should fail to hear this performance; it can enrich your life.
The sonic deficiencies here are actually MUCH LESS objectionable than
those on most Iron Needle, Sirio, or Grammofono 2000 transfers of old
Toscanini, Furtwaengler, and Bruno Walter recordings of the period.
But the quality is not up to what has been maintained in much of the
Gold Seal series; the other Toscanini operas from disk masters were
done better.
If you can remove from your mind all the "politics" and polemics and
rid yourself of the angst and frustration generated by so many years
of Toscanini criticism, aimed at Victor, his engineers, his producers,
and indeed the conductor's own taste in orchestral tone and sound
balancing, and just forget it, forget my hand-wringing about the audio
quality of this particular issue, and just LISTEN, you may be in for
one of the most emotionally-staggering experiences of your musical
life.
Here are just a few of the observations I scribbled hurriedly while
listening: the overture is magnificently paced, with the portent of an
actual stage performance, not played merely as an abstract piece...
Toscanini's marvelous sense of architecture and drama is evident and
draws one into the action...there is an incredible "ensemble" sense,
with the performers molded into one cohesive, chamber-like responsive
unit...Steber is delightfully girlish and sings in a radiant, vibrant
manner...Jan Peerce is for the most part fresher-voiced than in his
later performances with Toscanini, and is more appropriately ardent
and idealistic than in his 1961 performance under Knappertsbusch...the
orchestral playing is more alert and clearly-articulated than in many
a staged production or even most other recording-session
performances...the Rocco of Belarsky is emotionally expressive but
dignified, lacking the exaggerated and stagy qualities of many live
basso performances...the conductor's sense of sustained, consistent
flow, his "alive" and plastic phrasing, and his nearly unerring
accompaniments, keep the moment to moment tension at a high pitch,
focusing the listener's attention like few other performances
can...the chorus's contribution is accurate and expressive...the
insert from 1945 of Leonore's aria is done eloquently by Bampton...the
live performance of the Leonore Overture No. 3 is more dramatic, and
better recorded, than the 1945 version used in the old Red Seal
recording: I found the impact of the reading to be stunning: it almost
brought tears to my eyes in the noble and exultant closing pages
...the last scene has an ecstatic fervor that carries with it deeper,
ardently expressed emotion that in many other "classic", tightly
controlled, and slightly impersonal Toscanini performances: here we
look deeply into both the soul of the conductor and more importantly,
into Beethoven's!
Those were the positive remarks I scratched out while listening; I
also noted the negative observation that Janssen cannot deliver a
sustained tone in his lowest registers for the projection of his
climactic moments, as in "Ha! welch ein Augenblick!" where he falls
short of delivering the rich and powerful vocal tone required. The
ensemble is momentarily ragged (tr. 8, 0:50 to 0:55), a very slight
lapse and one that would pass unnoticed in a live performance heard
but once. The performance of the Leonore Overture No. 3 is not
absolutely flawless: there are noticeable ensemble difficulties in the
beginning, especially the faulty alignment of sections during the
period of 02:11 to 02:19 (Disk 2, tr. 10); could this have caused
Toscanini to originally reject it in favor of the 1945 recording?
Furthermore, one listens to the entire opera without being made aware
of the "high points" in the score, those moments when the stage action
(what little there is) is halted for an important solo, which will be
set off dramatically in a live performance; here, all is submerged
into the continuous flow, exacerbated slightly by the editing that
removed the natural breathing spaces in the live broadcast. Some
listeners will find that aspect of the reading a slight deficiency;
others may find that the chamber-like precision, and the selfless
humility of the artists before Beethoven and his philosophical message
of humanity, lacks the rhetoric of the stage, and conveys a narrower
perspective of character than one hears in the great Furtwaengler
performances. And the audience applause has been eliminated; it
contributed greatly to the eventful experience of listening to the
live broadcasts.
For me, however, this culmination of the great cycle of nine Beethoven
performances during the war year of 1944, when the Allies perceived
the promise of victory, is doubly valuable as not only a brilliant
musical document but also an important historic artifact, and makes
the saga of the Allies' struggle far, far more real to me than old
newsreels or books. One listens to the outpouring of hope in the last
scene, from the broadcast of December 14, 1944, and remembers that
only a few weeks later, Furtwaengler conducts his last concert before
fleeing a Third Reich reduced to rubble; the one artistic act is an
expression of striving progress, goodwill, and sense of purpose and
accomplishment; the other a grievance for a lost world. This is heady
stuff, and these people were greater than any of us. One feels as if
one is in the presence of the likes of a Shakespeare, a Caesar, a
Michelangelo, or a Galileo, when in the company of such geniuses.
A FANATICAL TOSCANINIPHILE
"Ignorance is bliss: use a killfile & add to it every day!"
-- Corno di Bassetto
A. F. T.
the Beethoven recordings in the Gold Seal TOSCANINI COLLECTION.
BEETHOVEN: Overtures: Leonore No. 3 (1945); Consecration of the House
(1947); Coriolan (1945); Egmont (1939); Creatures of Prometheus
(1944); Leonore No. 2 (1939); Quartet No. 16 movements (1938); Vol.
45.
I judge, overall, that this single-channel monaural CD transfer has
not been seriously falsified in relation to the shellac pressings I
have personally audited and transferred to tape; I do suspect that in
a few cases, some additional, very low amplitude, digitized ambience
has been added in a noncontroversial manner. So subtle is this that I
have not detected a spurious signature that stands out as an entirely
unrelated intrusion: if there were any echo added, it is done in mono
and folds directly in to the recording, rather than blooming out to
the left and right channel, in the manner of some fake stereo
processings. Those few auditors who still have access to a playable
copy of, say, M-1287, should nail down the issue of ambience that I
cannot describe conclusively (though "raw 78" - to - CD comparisons
are fraught with ambiguities and difficulties!)
LEONORE NO. 3: June 1, 1945, Carnegie Hall.
This performance was taken down in a recording session some half a
year after the complete broadcast of Fidelio that included the
interpolation of the overture in the Second Act, in the Mahler manner.
Yesterday I listened to that great live performance (contained in the
Gold Seal transfer of the Fidelio) and found that there were flaws of
execution: obvious section alignment discordance which may be heard on
that set in Vol. 54 at around 02:11 to 02:19 (Disk 2, tr. 10); in
addition, we hear audience intrusions and Toscanini's grunts, absent
here in the commercial recording. Despite Richard Caniell's objection
to the sound quality of the CD transfer of the live rendition, it has
more body and greater depth of ensemble clarity (from the front to
back rows of the orchestra, and discrimination of wind and string and
brass choir tonalities) than the Carnegie Hall recording.
Furthermore, the dynamic range of the live performance is much wider
than the '45 remake, which seems flat, one-dimensional, and squashed
in its dynamic variety. I measured that the loudest passages (evident
early in the recording and maintained all the way through during every
significant peak until the last measures) fail to differentiate
dynamic gradations above forte: for example, the opening chord peaks
only 2 dB lower than the sustained, flattened peaks of the dramatic
closing pages. I then compared the Muti/Philadelphia DDD recording on
EMI: there, with the realistic sound levels of the coda as reference,
I found that the opening chord was some NINE dB lower than the climax.
Yet, for all that, the Muti seems a low-voltage performance, despite
the sonorous realism.
Victor technicians obviously simply cranked in their fast-attack,
fast-release peak limiter to cut the wax masters. The same top
levelling is evident in 1945 shellac recordings of Koussevitzky and
Monteux (the Appalachian Spring and Symphonie Fantastique,
respectively) so this practice was not evidence of a prejudice against
Toscanini. In fact, the March 19, 1945 SFSO Brahms Second by Monteux
has even narrower dynamic range than this present Leonore No. 3, so
one cannot generalize that Toscanini was "hurt" by his producer and
recordists without accepting that other Victor artists were, too. In
the past, the frenzied Toscanini purists often overlooked this in
their narrow examination of only the Italian Maestro's recordings,
taken out of context with the body of works of RCA and other labels
during the same time period.
In comparing the performance to another I find stimulating (the live
reading from the August 5, 1950 Salzburg production of Fidelio by
Wilhelm Furtwaengler, on EMI CDM 7 64901 2), one finds that the
soaring noble theme of Florestan is better characterized by the German
conductor: his rendering is more vocally expressive and nuanced, with
a lyrical shaping that is replaced in Toscanini's by a more flowing,
even, and reserved expression. In Toscanini's live 1944 Fidelio, I
was surprised, in a direct A-B against the Salzburg reading, to find
the Italian conductor almost to be prosaic here. Likewise,
Toscanini's shaping of similar thematic material in the Leonore No. 2
live broadcast is ultra-straight and unindulgent.
A direct A-B instantaneous comparison of Florestan's theme, first
uttered in the clarinets, between the '45 and the live broadcast of
'39 (Vol. 4) is made difficult by two things: the slight pitch
sharpness of the '39, compared to the almost exactly correct '45, and
the noisy and brighter transfer of '39 on the BMG CD in juxtaposition
to the less noisy '45. But in doing so one notes that Toscanini
arrives as the passage some 8 seconds later in '39 than he does in
'45; and that the phrasing of the live broadcast, though not nearly as
"pregnant" and nuanced as Furtwaengler's, is better shaped and more
lyrical than in the '45 recording session reading: the usual evidence
on finds of Toscanini being more natural and free before a live
audience than before an empty hall and microphones.
The Toscanini acolyte will bristle at my critique in the paragraphs
above, and will justly and rightly counter with a number of powerful
arguments, explanations, and expansions. I imagine she might say,
"But, A. F. T., the dissection and phrase-by-phrase comparison is
tantamount to 'an unnatural act'!
"With regard to the phrasing of Florestan's theme, Toscanini follows
the literal note values. Furthermore, 'insiders' and intimates of his
NBC days have recounted that the Maestro came to regard his players as
being nearly members of his family. Offstage, he could be as gentle
as a lamb, expressing great "sympatico" empathy, and -- though he was
aware of the colorless tone of some wind players, notably clarinetist
Augustin Duques -- was loathe to dismiss a loyal musician during
troubled times of rocky economy or war. And, Furtwaengler was
leading, in contrast, an ensemble with a distinguished legacy of style
and tradition, while the NBC orchestra, though fine of its type, was
something of an ad-hoc group, and had played together only a few
years. Furthermore, in the BBC-SO recording of 1939 of Leonore
Overture No. 1 (Biddulph WHL 008-9, disk 2, tr. 6: from 04:08 through
04:51, there is more 'vocal' nuance, intrinsic to the playing of the
distinguished British instrumentalists; and in the NY Philharmonic and
Philharmonia readings of the conductor, one often hears greater
inflections.
"Finally, no baton-dictator can overcome a limitation of imagination
or physical skill of performers he directs: he may merely bring out
the best of their capacities, and help them reach heights of
expression they were capable of, but only discovered in the intensity
of the moment. There is a rehearsal from 1947 in which Toscanini
repeatedly importunes the orchestra's soloists to deliver nuances of
phrasing that are never realized...finally he goes on, to leave an
imperfect detail and to concentrate on the architecture of the whole
movement."
So before we whip up another generalization about Toscanini vs.
Furtwaengler in a knee-jerk manner, examining a single point in a
relative vacuum, we must take care...we are all anxious to quantify
and qualify, and we DO know what these two geniuses, AT and WF,
thought of each other: to the German master, Toscanini had a "lack of
acquaintance...and...naive ignorance of one of the main demands of
properly symphonic music, the demand for organic development...the
actual content of Beethoven's music, namely that which is
organic...fail to exist for Toscanini..." (Ardoin, p. 40); the Italian
broke off friendly relations with his great colleague over
musico-geopolitics; and to Toscanini, 'all the conductors are bad, but
perhaps I am not as bad as the others' (paraphrased by Gregor
Piatagorski.) I am willing to let these towering figures express
their own rationalizations of self-aggrandizement and personal
conviction; for me, they are both equally profound artists.
The '45 Leonore Overture recording, examined on its own, is a
powerhouse of a reading, though unnatural in the loss of true dynamic
shading. Marsh described it as "tightened up, with metronomic
rigidity" but "an exceptional reading of a score that is rarely given
such careful attention to balance and detail." He found the loud
passages "cramped": one has difficulty accepting the slightly improper
terminology, which might be better applied to the size of the acoustic
(the ambience of Carnegie is obviously larger than that of the Studio
8H aircheck, which does sound somewhat "cramped" in spatial
dimensionality.) Marsh meant "limited" or "flattened"; thus one
realizes that the general music critic often mistakes one interacting
audio characteristic for another.
The transfer requires what B. H. Haggin always referred to as a "step
of bass": one might want to use a graphic equalizer to enrich the
response in the region of 60 to 120 Hz. It is easily and quickly done
by the auditor of the CD with a simple bass control if that is all the
parametric adjustment available. Headphone listening on simple
Walkman type 'non-sweetenable' CD players will generally reveal the
somewhat thin, bass-shy reproduction. Even heard that way, I find the
sound perfectly tolerable, and cannot fault Pfeiffer or his
technicians (Winner, Marston, et al.) for divining MY preferences!
Sheer sound-buff Toscaninians will probably revel in the richness and
visceral impact of the live '39 as heard on Naxos 8.110815-16. For
the ultimate musical insight and inspiration of the moment in a live
Toscanini reading, consult the somewhat falsified and midrange-
errant, "cupped- sounding" transfer on Vol. 54 of the live December
17, 1944 rendition.
CONSECRATION OF THE HOUSE: Overture, Op. 124. December 16, 1947,
recording session in Studio 8H.
This is one of three of the overtures that I have personally dubbed
from commercial shellac disks to analogue tape, back in the days
before there was a tolerable LP transfer. My best friend of the
sixties owned a mint, virtually unplayed copy of M-1287, and its
vibrancy was very familiar to me for many years. Since I do not have
the copy that I donated to a radio station around 1991, I cannot do an
A-B against the present CD transfer; but I do suspect that a very
slight trace of rather innocuous artificial reverberance may have been
folded in, monophonically. The reading is admirably straight-forward,
as are indeed the highly-respected old Weingartner, or the stereo
Klemperer (the latter MUCH slower than Toscanini); all are solid
references for students of the score. Charles Giskin, who was a
violist and participated in many of the broadcasts and recording
sessions in the seasons of 1947 and 1948, told me in an extensive
interview in the mid-sixties that this work was a special highlight of
the concerts, in the days when it was nearly unknown to the general
audience: Maestro did it with NBC on March 16, 1947, and then again
(with great proselytizing enthusiasm recalled by Giskin) only six
months later, in the beginning of the new season, on Oct. 25, 1947; he
recorded it in December, and then played it for the last time in March
19, 1949. I have heard all of these broadcasts, though in sound
quality that was inferior to the clarity of projection, balanced
tonality, and brilliance of the original shellac recording, so THIS
performance from the recording session has been my preference; I
believe that, as memory serves, the CD transfer captures the essential
character of the 78 sides. The digitizing is better, surely, than the
dull Red Seal LP issue on LM-9022, which I possessed in an "enhanced"
copy; the German Toscanini vinyl version was much closer to the
shellacs and this CD. Haggin's proverbial "step of bass" would not be
out of line!
CORIOLAN Overture, Op. 62: June 1, 1945 recording session in Carnegie;
EGMONT Overture, Op. 84: Nov. 18, 1939 broadcast in Studio 8H;
CREATURES OF PROMETHEUS Overture, Op. 43: recording session of
December 18, 1844, Studio 8H;
LEONORE Overture No. 2: November 25, 1939 broadcast in Studio 8H.
The shellac disks of the first and third items were in my own
collection. The performance of "Coriolan" is very severe, austere,
and clipped, with the characteristically aggressive attacks of a
Toscanini "on the march". The 'furioso' treatment is not as
successful as the more sober and measured angst in the Carnegie Hall
broadcast of Dec. 6, 1953, in the slightly-imperfect FM aircheck
dubbed to the CD issue of Music & Arts ATRA-3007. The "Egmont" of
1939 is becoming well-known as an alternative to the 1953 commercial
recording: I believe that it was issued before, commercially by
Victor, only in the U. K. on shellac form until this authorized CD
transfer, though tapes have circulated, the wretched ATS/Olympic LP
was available, and there are 'bootleg' CD's of varying quality. Now
that it is in public domain -- at least in some countries -- it has
been issued by Naxos in richer and more noise-reduced sound than this
edition (8.110814) and in a slightly noisier but rich transfer,
resembling the old collectors' tape, on Relief 1885; both issues have
the complete concert; Relief omits the announcements. I find the
interpretation more cohesive than the commercial '53 account.
The "Prometheus" Overture is a joyful and passionate rendition, with
something of the shallowness of sonority described in my discussion of
the '45 Leonore No. 3, due to the limiting (this was evident on the
'raw' 78 side, as in the CD transfer. It is not objectionable, taken
in the overall body of Toscanini recordings of the time, though the
lack of definition and depth, the flattening of dynamic gradations,
and the slight loss of 'airiness' in the top of the spectrum were
typical of the usual Victor 78 recordings; these negative
characteristics are replaced, one notes, with transparency and
vividness, and a greater environmental richness, in the remarkable
1945 Gershwin "American in Paris" recording, a near-perfect example,
from that period, of the "Johnston position" miking and balancing
concept. As has been noted, the Naxos recording of the '39 broadcast
of 25 November (8.110813) is labeled as containing the overture, but
that was an editing error by the disk manufacturer; it is not on the
disk, which has other extracts from the ballet music of Op. 43. At
present, I have no immediate access to the '42 or '49 broadcasts for a
comparison. Finally, the Leonore Overture No. 2 from 1939 is one of
the great, characteristic Toscanini Beethoven performances, and is
presented two utterly different ways in this Gold Seal and in the
Naxos transcription listed immediately above in the prior sentences.
The enhancement of body of tone in the complete broadcast, compared to
the extract of whatever source was used by BMG, is worth investing in;
on the "official" BMG label, it is colored at the top end, with a
metallic tonality that is similar to the effects I described in my
review of the Fidelio broadcast of 1944. "In isolation" the Gold Seal
is tolerable, minus the opportunity to compare transfer versions.
STRING QUARTET NO. 16 in F, Op. 135: Lento Assai & Vivace; recording
session of March 8, 1938, Studio 8H.
I myself have transferred the shellacs, to provide a more realistic
reproduction in the days when the only vinyl available was the awful
LCT-1041: that was done just after the switchover to 45 and LP
recordings, and the primitive engineering incorporated
second-tape-head echo of a repetitive, predictable "slap-back"
character: after each aggressive stroke in the Vivace, one heard a
tizzy, extended "WAH-Wah-wah" artificial ambience. I could not
tolerate that! The present CD edition sound just about like some of
the characteristics I remember from the shellacs: a dry, wiry, coarse,
IM-laden top end, resembling the Vol. 23 transfer of the '39 Eighth
but not nearly as fuzzy. There is somewhat ripened bass,
overprominent in the incorrect region of 200 Hz. I am not certain if
the shellacs sounded this way, but they might have.
The old cellist and chamber-music aficionado Toscanini was fond of
playing quartet movements in string section expansions, and gave
selections from the chamber works of Boccherini, Haydn, Kozeluh,
Spohr, and Beethoven from time to time: in 1944 he did movements from
the last composer's quartets Op. 59/3 and Op. 130: that broadcast
exists in fidelity vastly cleaner and more brilliant than in this
reminiscence of Op. 135. However, in its favor, the Lento is played
gravely, with a seamless legato, an attentive, caressing, and lyrical
phrasing, and a rapt and intimate concentration, while the Vivace
dances, sings, and sparkles (Toscanini reversed the order to make his
excerpts end more decisively in concert); the live broadcast of '39
lacks something of the detached, sustained elegance and ethereal
beauty of the '38 Lento, though the swagger and brio of the Vivace,
and the amazing transparency of sound, with the shellac disk "veil"
stripped away, is beguiling. There is indeed some very distinct
ambient decay after the last note in the 8H recording transfer on the
Naxos import, which sounds very much like my remembrance of the WRVR
rebroadcast, which was "pure" and authentic. The Gold Seal has a bit
LESS of this acoustical bloom, though the 78 medium's high noise
platform may have submerged some of it.
The Gold Seal transfer's quiet opening F seems in agreement with my
piano, as is the violin section entry in C# (or is it D-flat?); the
Naxos live broadcast transfer (8.110813) is distinctly sharp, but
agrees precisely with the pitch of my DGG recording by the VPO strings
under Leonard Bernstein! The Gold Seal is only very slightly lower in
pitch, by a tiny fraction of a semitone, compared to my copy by the
Vermeer Quartet on Teldec. Non pitch-addicts, and non-string players,
will not much care about these differences. Either Toscanini
performance would be, to my taste, preferable to the Bernstein (one
need only hear the Franckian swelling in the violin section entrance
of Lenny's reading of the Lento to know that it will be indulgent and
mannered in a way that would be repellent to Toscanini's sense of
balance and purism.) If your relationship to this music is tied to
your model of a quartet performance, the Toscanini may well be more to
your taste, too; those who revel in "big orchestra string sonority"
and Stokowskian indulgence may adore the Bernstein and be swept away
by its ardor, finding the Toscanini Lento too restrained.
- - - -
That concludes my overview of what I believe, if I am not mistaken,
were all of the Beethoven performances in the BMG Toscanini
Collection. Perhaps in a month or so I shall begin on other important
recordings that every Toscanini enthusiast should consider.
Lehobe
providing to all of us. It's obvious you have first-hand knowledge that either
most of us fans aren't privy to, or are unaware of, specifically the existence
of W2XMN. This is a "bombshell" in and of itself! I couldn't agree with you
more in your overall assessments of Toscanini's unique insights as rendered by
the sublime NBC Symphony Orchestra. One case-in-point in "Fidelio" that
illustrates the aforementioned is the accent that Maestro elicits from the
First and Second Violins and Violas 21 bars from the beginning of the aria "Ha,
welch'ein Augenblick!" In the Breitkopf & Haertel Full Score, the first eight
note is marked "fp," which amounts to an accent considering the fast tempo
indication, "Allegro agitato.". What astounds and delights me every time I
hear it is how utterly appropirate it is to hear the same "fp" occuring every
first and third beat throughout the entire sequence!! The fury of Pizzaro is
mirrored and bolstered by those accents coming every first and third beat.
Just another example of Maestro's "unerring accompaniments," to use your words.
Furtwaengler's recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic seem to make the
inherent fury apparent by the sheer sonority of the strings themselves, it
seems to me. I've long believed that the closest we'll get to Beethoven is the
recorded legacy of Toscanini and the antipodal conviction of Furtwaengler, but
I'm digressing. I can't wait to read your comments about LM-1838, and the C.D.
re-issue, Toscanini's recording of "Pictures at an Exhibition" and whether the
beginning of "The Great Gate of Kiev" was spliced onto the electrifying
crescendo conclusion of "The Hut of Baba Yaga." I just can't imagine any
ensemble achieving such...that is, besides the NBC! The dynamic of the brass
choir in the first note of "The Great Gate" is exactly the same as that toward
which the crescendo built including that of the three percussionists. It is to
my hearing, anyway. By contrast, the historic recording by Koussevitzky and
the Boston Symphony reveals a long pause between "The Hut" and "The Great
Gate." Is this the express desire of Koussevitzky or the desire of the
re-issue producer and/or technicians? Both performances are obviously
essential for any music lover to hear, but I choose the Toscanini performance
if I have to select one favorite. Also, the crescendo (followed by a
decrescendo) in "Bydlo" is more electrifying than any other recording I've
heard, and Mr. Harry Glantz's solo "Promenade" has vibrato which other
conductors and virtuoso Principal Trumpet players have chosen not to employ.
In any case, this admittedly lengthy response is just my way of saying thank
you for the service you're providing. I, for one, can't wait until your next
essay appears.
Les Bernstein
Lehobe
Matty Silverstein
Lehobe wrote in message <19981224162848...@ng-fb2.aol.com>...
>In my eagerness to reply, I misspelled "Pizarro," which I now correct.
Sorry!
Too late! He's probably already put you in his "killfile."
Matty
A. F. T.
>To "A Fanatical Toscaniniphile": My compliments on the service you're
>providing to all of us...I couldn't agree with you
>more in your overall assessments of Toscanini's unique insights as rendered by
>the sublime NBC Symphony Orchestra. One case-in-point in "Fidelio"...the same "fp" occuring every
>first and third beat throughout the entire sequence!!
I am no "Fidelio specialist" so I appreciate your more intimate
knowledge of the score, and the insights regarding detail that my EARS
were telling me, but which I had not the skill and experience to
relate in the details you mention.
> I can't wait to read your comments about LM-1838, and the C.D.
>re-issue, Toscanini's recording of "Pictures at an Exhibition" and whether the
>beginning of "The Great Gate of Kiev" was spliced onto the electrifying
>crescendo conclusion of "The Hut of Baba Yaga."
Sadly I do not recall this detail in the live broadcast, which I seem
to think that I once heard in a taped copy. Perhaps someone here will
know, that is if they are willing to own up to having immediate access
to the tapes of the concert of Jan. 24, 1953, to compare the specific
detail with the edited version of the commercial recording session of
Jan. 26, '53. I have the copy recently issued on Iron Needle of the
performance of Jan. 29, 1938 (IN 1389, strangely for that label, in
MONO, though the companion track of Dukas is in fake stereo) and --
when I get around to it in my reviews of the Gold Seal -- I will
remember your question and will try to pin down some kind of an
answer.
The 'legality' of the aircheck tapes is problematical. If one made
the tapes oneself, and kept them for personal enjoyment, taking the
broadcast right off the radio, no one could object. If, however, one
gets into the "underground movement" then that is a different matter.
I don't have the aircheck "collectors' recordings" that are floating
around; I subscribe to my own music organization's guidelines for
intellectual property rights issues with respect to copyright. But no
one could prevent me from HEARING tapes that belong to somebody else,
or of marching down to my record store to buy a CD that is offered
over the counter.
So, there will be underground folks who have the aircheck of the '53,
who can put it on, and who can -- in a moment -- come up with an
answer about the "editing" of a pause as opposed to a natural one. My
suspicion, based on hearing various things over the years, dating back
as far as the late seventies, is that Toscanini's live broadcast and
performance intentions are reflected in the recording; but I may be
wrong. Any of us, presumably, could go to the NY Public Library R&H
collection and check legally (but I am 3,500 miles away.) Seth, Don,
et al.: any corroborations about this matter?
A FANATICAL TOSCANINIPHILE
Toscanini Gold Seal Series Reviews at:
<http://www.2xtreme.net/rwwood/arturo/index.html">
Don Drewecki
AFT:
Based on the near-unanimous condemnation of Iron Needle I haven't
purchased a single CD of theirs.
--
Don Drewecki
<dre...@rpi.edu>
Paul Goldstein
cutouts for ridiculously low prices at the SF Tower Outlet. The two I
bought - one with Mengelberg's 1930 NYP-SO studio Eroica (c/w a 1926
Concertgebouw studio Tannhauser Overture), and one with
Gieseking/Rosbaud/Berlin State Opera Orchestra in Beethoven 1 and Mozart 9
(c/w Mozart sonata K. 570 - all Columbia studio recordings from 1937/8) -
seem excellent, although I have never heard any of these recordings in
alternative transfers. In each case, the IN disc reveals remarkably full
and natural sound, including very firm and coherent bass. In addition, all
of these performances are wonderful, particularly the Eroica and the Mozart
9. The Beethoven 1 is a very interesting conception, but the finale is
surprisingly low-key.
Does anyone know if these IN discs are simply ripoffs of others' transfers?
I know the Eroica is available on Biddulph, and the entire Gieseking program
is available on APR. However, the IN disc seems to have been published
before the APR.
--
Paul Goldstein
http://www.jtcb.com/profile/profiles/pgoldstein/pgoldstein.html
Don Drewecki wrote in message <76bilk$u...@vcmr-19.rcs.rpi.edu>...