I picked up this 10 CD box several months ago and listened to it in fits and spurts, but in the past week I made a point of listening to the entire thing in a few dedicated sessions.
One reason for that is the fourth disc in the set -- Wagner. This was my first time intentionally and knowingly listening to anything by Wagner. First, I'm not an opera fan. Second, exactly how does one get in the mood to listen to the music of an unhinged anti-Semite and all-around flake who spent most of his life spewing venom and running away from creditors?
I'm not a fan of cancel culture. I came to terms with the moral failings of other classical musicians such as von Karajan. One simply can't go through life dissecting the character flaws of every artist, I think we'd find most of them highly disagreeable (at best) or flagrantly indefensible (at worst) in some way. And that's only based on their public personas, through interviews, social media, etc. I don't need to be pretend friendly with an artist to enjoy and respect their work. I still listen to the Phil Spector Christmas album each holiday season. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You" is an obvious Spector tribute, and it's gone to #1 each year for the past several years. It's a special part of millions of people's lives. You simply can't cancel some people.
You can't cancel Wagner, but on the other hand, everyone has a personal choice to make. I never felt the need to listen to his music, so I didn't. Until now.
Unsurprisingly, the quality across these ten discs is consistently great. Nearly everything is a soundstage mono recording with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, recorded in the 1940's or 1950's. You know what you're getting with Toscanini -- brisk tempos, highly disciplined yet energetic playing. I felt that the sound is an impediment to extended listening, not because of the mono recordings -- the quality is for the most part good -- but due to the dry acoustics of the soundstage. It may be useful for radio broadcasting, but the lack of reverb and depth to the recordings is grating on the ear. For the most part, the performance sound thin, reedy, and lacking in bass and punch.
First, the obvious. The Rossini overtures are a clear highlight -- breathless sprints through the material by an opera master. Toscanini is also tremendous with Beethoven. His run through the Eighth Symphony is a delight, capturing all the warmth, drama, and humour that most conductors fail to bring out. His take on Schubert's Unfinished is a true sprint, running just 21 minutes, but I found myself entranced by the urgency of this interpretation. His Strauss and Sibelius are also appropriately fiery and intense.
Now, the less obvious. Disc 8 features a quartet of French composers and is a true gem. I'm not sure I've heard a better Debussy "Images" (unfortunately incomplete here). Similarly, excerpts from Ravel, Franck, and Roussel respond well to the Toscanini treatment. Disc 10 features American composers and definitively contradicts the notion that Toscanini didn't connect with American music. Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" (featuring Benny Goodman!) and "An American In Paris" are as fine as any on disc, and Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite" (sometimes derided as trite, populist junk) is a tour de force of symphonic imagery. Has there been a better recording of "Cloudburst" that captures this force of nature more vividly? Finally, this recording of Barber's "Adagio For Strings" is outstanding, as you'd expect from the maestro who premiered the work.
And Wagner? Still not for me, although there are wonderful moments in nearly each piece, particularly the Prelude to Lohengrin.
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