Ludwig van Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies - Arturo Toscanini / NBC Symphony Orchestra
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Music CD Cover Edition: Music CD Format: Box set CD Release Date: 2003-12-09 Music Label: RCA Soundtracks: Music CD 1
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Free Music Notes for Ludwig van Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies - Arturo Toscanini / NBC Symphony Orchestra Album
Free Music Review: my two cents
Hit: 3 Stars
I'm writing this mostly to off-set a somewhat fanatical fan of Toscanini's that seems to think what he (and a few of countless reviewers) experiences as the "best" beethoven cycle.
Considering the fact that these days there are still conductors appreciated by current reviewers, and assuming reviewers these days aren't vastly inferior to those that lived around Toscanini's day, this appears to tell us that Toscanini, while good in his own right, has lost some of his conductoral relevance that made him the crême de la crême back in his day.
Which i believe is directly related to the questions of whether or not you would want to buy this set today.
Let me try to clarify that.
To my (admittedly untrained) ear, when i listen to Toscanini's performances, they sound like how i could perform them with just a minimum of training.. (please forgive me for my somewhat hyperbolic way of putting this, but it's mostly for the sake of the argument)
I wouldn't have to be a beethoven scholar to "interpret" his writing.
This is not to say Toscanini doesn't conduct better, but my point is that you don't really need to study the man behind the music to come up with a fairly uninspired reading of notes, which is how i perceive this recording.
Now, while toscanini might have arrived at the idea of conducting it faithfully *because* he studied Beethoven, nowadays, recordings like this one are everywhere, and as such, the norm.. which leads to my concluding he won't be able to surprise you anymore.
When i listen to just the intros of his 5th, 7th and 9th, all i hear is an orchestra playing without any lyricism beyond what they're reading off the paper.
Now, it may be true that I've gotten used to Furtwängler's very expressive way of conducting (the War years recordings), but when i listen to the fast way Toscanini conducts, i don't *feel* anything..
And while i know that Beethoven routinely made fun of people after smaller audience performances (the high society) because they got carried away by his music, with people crying at the ordeal they feel they experienced through the music, but doesn't that imply that Beethoven, when conducting, put feeling into his music by conducting it the way he felt it should be conducted?
And, consequently, that his way of conducting would probably be different from Tosca's, since i have yet to discover any *real* dramatic buildup towards any sort of climax other than what's already been written into the music?
Sure, there is dramatic buildup and tension in the music itself, but if conductors were only allowed to perform it as the notes required, after 2 or 3 listening-throughs, and 2 or 3 conductors, you won't be able to be surprised at *any* of the Macro-level stuff that's in the piece, even if you might still discover a few new details every time you hear it.
My point is, mostly, that a conductor is there to interpret the sheets any way he likes, to a point.
And when Toscanini does it his way, that's his good right.
But it is *not* necessary to say that his way is the "only" way, from which all contemporary conducting derived, because that is just not the case.
Particularly because a contemporary of Toscanini, Furtwängler, was just as admired for his (very different) conducting style, and it only really depended on what 'camp' the critic was in to hear which of the 2 conductors was best.
This even though Furt was ignored for a long time because of false Nazi collaboration allegations that were particularly bad in the US, where Toscanini conducted and had his following.
In conclusion, when you want to have a set that probably changed the "standard performance" we hear today to a mirror image of itself, get this.
If you want to have a historically accurate collection of all great cycles and conductors, get this.
But if you really want to have a recording that moves you, don't buy this set.. Because i feel it won't do that.
Also, don't get the standard von Karajan stuff that everyone that doesn't hate him these days recommends, but try ASIN B00001W09Z,
and listen to the 9th recorded there without doing anything, preferably with your eyes closed, or just sitting in a chair doing nothing but listening to the music, and let it move you.