Toscanini/NBC SO: Brahms Symphony No. 2 Op. 73 (r. 1952) - FALP 202 - very rare

$

22

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ITEM DESCRIPTION:

This beautiful and rare LP from La Voix de son Maitre (FALP 202, French pressing, red/silver semi-circle label – ED1, mono) features conductor Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra in resplendent account of Brahms's Symphony No. 2 in D Major Op. 73, recorded in the warm acoustics of New York's Carnegie Hall on 11 February 1952.

 

Although early French HMV pressings of Toscanini's Beethoven recordings turn up often enough, only scant other titles from the conductor's large discography do so with any regularity. This is among the more elusive Toscanini titles on La Voix de son Maitre.

 

Of RCA's CD re-issue of this performance, the outstanding critic Christopher Howell wrote for MusicWeb-International:

 

"During Toscanini's lifetime it was virtually a truism that he was the greatest of all conductors; even in my own youth, by which time he had been dead for about a decade, his last London concerts a cherished memory dating from around the time of my own birth, the myth still held. If Toscanini's impact on the collective conscious is anything to go by, the legend must be true; Toscanini is one of the few musical names that the average man in the street, totally uninterested in classical music, is likely to have heard of, whereas a mention of Klemperer or Furtwängler will draw a blank. As proof of what I have just said, my Word 2003 programme has just underlined these last two conductors as "spelling mistakes", while it accepted Toscanini.

 

"Excessive adulation led to a backlash, while the work of many of his contemporaries came in from the cold. "Overdriven", "brutal", "rabid" were the adjectives typically applied to his performances, though this has not prevented the issue of many of his radio performances, often by more than one rival company, as a complement to the very wide range of "official" recordings he made for RCA.

 

"Here we have the "official" versions of the first two Brahms symphonies and at least one "truism" can be disposed of. It was always claimed that these RCA recordings were unduly strident in their tone quality and did not do justice to Toscanini's phrasing, and on their original issue this was often true. The sound here is clear but warm and, if it is vibrant rather than mellow, with the upper lines predominating over the lower, this is plausibly a reflection of Toscanini's melos-oriented approach. As now presented, the sound seems to me extremely good for its date.

 

"Toscanini's opening does not bode well, since the cello motto is gruff and, while the horns are romantic enough, the magical violin entries are too present, directly hitting the note rather than easing into it. However, as the flowing violin melody takes over from the threatening trombones, all is light and grace, with no attempt to hustle things on. Later Toscanini is forthright in the stronger passages, the strings soaring passionately, but this does not prevent him from caressing the second subject and presenting a quite lovely performance.

 

"Boult's opening is actually faster than Toscanini's but this is because he begins as he means to continue. This mood is caught ideally, gently lilting and quite in tune with Brahms's own description s "so merry and tender, as if it were specially written for a newly-wedded couple". It is less highly powered than Toscanini but reveals its strength as it builds up.

 

"Klemperer takes his time over the opening, relishing the dark colours and creating an air of foreboding. In much of the movement he is briskly Beethovenian, his basic tempo faster than Boult's, but in second subject territory he slows down for an amiable ramble around the Austrian woodlands.

 

"Mengelberg is something else again. His basic tempi is very fast indeed, but right from the outset he is willing to dwell on phrases and even single notes, creating a sense of almost tempo-less flexibility. Orchestrally it is one of the most beautiful performances ever recorded, quite without that grumpiness which often seems part and parcel of Brahms's orchestral writing, and it is convincing enough to make you wonder if this is actually what Brahms might have liked (remember that he walked out of a Hans Richter performance because the tempo was to rigid). But who ever could control an orchestra well enough today to bring such an interpretation off?

 

"The cellist Toscanini produces some very careful, detailed phrasing at the opening of the Adagio non troppo, but when the woodwind take up the themes his insistence on full tone at all times becomes a little four-square. Boult is more naturally flowing and gracious though some will find this another of those key moments where he "digs in" less than the others. Klemperer certainly digs in, his burnished string tone suggesting a noble threnody; but later, though his tempo is not really all that much slower, it is enough so to sound a little doleful at times. Mengelberg is slower still, but his plastic, vocal phrasing avoids any sense of heaviness. Almost needless to say, he moves on far more than the others in the central part.

 

"Toscanini is precise but rather cautious and tight-reined in the Allegretto grazioso, the contrasting episodes prophetic of Prokofiev's motor rhythms. It is hard to believe that Boult is actually faster, so much more relaxed and delicate does he sound. However, the execution is a little slack – the first of the oboe's acciaccaturas is smudged and might reasonably have been retaken. No smudge with Klemperer who exploits the acciaccaturas to give the music the feel of a tangy Mahlerian landler. On the whole I feel it is he who finds the most character in this movement. Mengelberg's extreme range of speeds in such a short movement sound somewhat confused.

 

"Toscanini's finale is basically a taught, fiery affair, marred only by a tendency to rush ahead at times, already noticeably in the first tutti. Boult takes more time to build the music up, finding character in moments where Toscanini barges onwards. Klemperer is closer to Toscanini in his brisk urgency – if his timing is longer it is only because he does not hurry within is chosen tempo. He stronger on overall surge than individual moments – and is positively bluff with the second subject material. Mengelberg cannot resist the temptation to begin below tempo and the burst in excitedly, but thereafter he is very fine and indulges the second subject material less than one might have expected.

 

"So how has the Toscanini myth emerged? As far as these two symphonies are concerned, the myth of the racing tempi is not borne out (only in the first movement of no.1 is he notably faster than the others); nor, for that matter, is that of Klemperer's ponderousness. That of Boult's architectural idealism seems to hold (I know my American colleagues will have been chortling with mirth at the idea of putting Boult in this company; I have already been taken to task once. For reasons I don't quite understand, an Englishman who admires Boult is considered a hopeless provincial, while an American who admires Bernstein is not). If we set Furtwängler and Mengelberg aside as representatives of a different type of interpretation, we nevertheless find that Toscanini's supremacy over the other two hardly bears examination. Quite the reverse; what the comparisons reveal is that Toscanini tended to approach each work with a fixed idea about it and pursue that idea rigorously to the end, come what may. Unfortunately, what came across to a simpler-minded world than ours as impressive single-mindedness, risks seeming merely simple-minded in our own more complicated age. Nevertheless, these are performances which still need to be heard."

 

Incidentally, the lovely cover art was one by A. Pineau, while the eloquent liner notes on the reverse side of the jacket were written by Jean-Marie Grenier, printed in French only.

 

CONDITION – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

The gradations of condition I use are as follows: MINT, Near-Mint, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.

 

The condition of the jacket is VERY GOOD+. There is a tape repair to the lower edge, as well as minor edgewear, but that is all. There are no other seamsplits, nor are there any bends, owners' markings, or other defects, and the album remains solid, bright, and highly attractive – overall, a fine collector's copy.  

 

The condition of the LP itself is VERY GOOD+. Although surfaces are not silent, and there are a few scattered tics (nothing repetitive), really this is a solid copy and the playback is excellent. Those wanting flawless or NM surfaces are kindly advised to look elsewhere. Overall, this rates as an excellent collector's copy.

 

 

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