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Binding: Audio CDEAN: 0017685424021 Format: Original recording reissued Label: Music & Arts Program Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program Number Of Discs: 2 Publisher: Music & Arts Program Release Date: January 19, 1999 Studio: Music & Arts Program Editorial Review: Amazon.com essential recording: The 1951 NBC broadcast Verdi Requiem approved by Toscanini for commercial release in the RCA/BMG Toscanini Collection (Vol. 63) is superseded by this broadcast from November 23, 1940, on both sonic and artistic grounds. Music & Arts' clear, well-focused sound (transferred, one suspects, from "inside" source material) captures the warmth and bottom often missing from the Maestro's harsher-sounding commercial discs. All of the vocal contributions, notwithstanding minor but glaring lapses from the soloists, surpass their later counterparts, especially the supple and well-rehearsed Westminster Choir. Moreover, Toscanini's broader tempi and greater flexibility allow text and music to coalesce in a manner few conductors have achieved, including Toscanini himself in subsequent performances. The present concert opened with a lovely performance of the Te Deum, a work the Maestro actually coached under the composer's approving eye. Excellent notes by Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs round out this important release. --Jed Distler Average Rating:
 Rating:  - terrific !!!This recording is one of the best of all Verdi - Requiem recs. Toscanini, who (I think) the greatest Verdi conductor and his NBC Symphony with Westminster Chorus, performed it so wonderful! It is sometime darkful, sometime very passionate, powerful, terrible... You can see all the drammatic perspective to death of Verdi. And you can easily impressed with this recording. This is the 1940 (early) performance of Toscanini, and more succesful than his later 1951 rec. In that occasion, there ... Read More Rating:  - Toscanini's best Verdi RequiemI have heard a recording of this broadcast concert and, despite some surface noise from the original source, it was clear that this may be the best recorded performance by Toscanini of the Verdi "Requiem." I can't imagine why RCA Victor never issued this. Of course, they reportedly only issued recordings that Toscanini approved and there's some evidence that he wasn't always the best judge of his recordings. Certainly the 1951 concert recording, also from Carnegie Hall, has better fidelity, but this ... Read More Rating: - An ESSENTIAL Item for the Toscanini Collector!Most of the Music & Arts transfers of Toscanini broadcasts are in the highest possible "in house" quality of sound, as typified by this magnificent issue, which should rise to the top of the heap of all Toscanini releases of the Verdi "Requiem". Though the later 1951 broadcast (with corrections from the dress rehearsal) of the Requiem is contained in the "authorized" and "official" RCA / BMG Toscanini Collection (Vol. 63), the reading is overly- aggressive and harsh, defaced as it is by ... Read More |
