Brahms: The Four Symphonies (NBC Symphony Orchestra Vol. IV)

Our Price: $19.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Brahms: The Four Symphonies (NBC Symphony Orchestra Vol. IV)

Music Review: Clarity of Purpose
Rating: 4 Stars

I was wrong. In 1997, RCA totally reorganized and inventoried its massive vaults, which had been in disarray for decades. As a result, many original sources which had been declared "lost" were now "found." This new remastering is strikingly improved sonically over all earlier issues. Utilizing the best technology now available, RCA has also done the right thing by hiring a musician--conductor Ed Houser--rather than whiz-bang technicians to supervise the remastering. The NBC Symphony Orchestra now sounds better than ever before, with greater clarity, smoother strings, fuller winds, and less blotting out during fortissimos.

Perhaps no conductor of the 20th Century has been as misunderstood as Arturo Toscanini, as evidenced by the critical backlash with which he was assailed in the years after his death. That criticism was partly in reaction to the equally unbalanced adulation heaped upon him during his lifetime. I remember once mentioning to an acquaintance my admiration for Toscanini's Beethoven and Brahms, and he shot back, "He conducts everything too fast!" In fact, in comparison with other recordings and broadcasts of his era, Toscanini's conducting was not generally faster than average. In relation to TODAY'S phlegmatic tempos, however, Toscanini's pacing is definitely brisk. But what most people are hearing as fast is, in fact, Toscanini's characteristic rhythmic vitality and, occasionally, drive, which brings the faster movements to sparkling life. In contrast, some of Toscanini's tempos are surprisingly broad, as in the horn-call introduction to the finale of Brahms' First Symphony. Likewise, the slow movements are never dragged, and glow with Italianate warmth.

Toscanini's approach to Brahms' orchestral works was to focus on structural and harmonic clarity. The flabby, soggy approach typefied by many "traditional" conductors was anathema to everything Toscanini stood for. All four of Brahms' Symphonies on these two CDs feature dazzling clarity of execution, where harmonic strands are transparent. Despite his reputation as a literalist, Toscanini was not afraid to fix what he considered problems with orchestration, and there are discreet touch-ups here, particularly in the finale of the First Symphony, where Toscanini has made alterations to the timpani parts, and also in the Third Symphony.

Unfortunately, the Third Symphony presented problems for Toscanini which went beyond orchestration. His several recorded performances of this work run the gamut from rhapsodic to more structural minded, and this performance never quite takes off. He seems to have been more successful performing this work before an audience, and his 1946 live performance (on Music & Arts, coupled with a stunning Second Concerto with his son-in-law, Vladimir Horowitz,) is to be preferred over this version. The other three Symphonies fare well, and remain some of the most compelling accounts of these works ever recorded.

RCA does not credit the liner notes, but they are reprints of Mortimer H. Frank's excellent notes originally written for the early 1990s CD release.

RCA has so far only released Toscanini's core repertoire with the NBC Symphony--but they are more than welcome additions to the catalogue. The Maestro's recordings with the New York Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra should also be remastered, post-haste. Then, RCA, which has given us magnificent reissues of Kapell and Rubinstein, should get to work and replace their botched Vladimir Horowitz reissue from the 1990s, using this magnificent Toscanini reissue as a template.

Classical CDs

• Music > Styles