[.ca] The Immortal Toscanini--Choral Works

Chronique amazon.fr:
Avec Arturo Toscanini, nous entrons dans l'univers des témoignages historiques. Le chef connut Verdi, sous la direction duquel il joua. La rigueur, la violence de l'enregistrement fameux réalisé pour la radio américaine en 1951 avec l'orchestre symphonique de la NBC (RCA) est le jalon le plus accessible laissé par le musicien. Hormis Karajan (en public), personne n'a rendu à ce point l'aspect narratif de la partition. Si vous attendez la terreur de l'Homme face à la mort, vous serez servis ! C'est un Requiem d'acier servi par l'excellence des chanteurs italiens (Neli, Barbieri, di Stefano et Siepi). Une leçon de présence, hallucinée. --Luc Nevers

New sound is a major improvement:
I bought the 1990 remastering of the Verdi "Requiem" but after one or two times, I did not listen to it very often, since the sound was compressed and the loudest passages were badly distorted. This new remastering is a significant improvement over the older one, and allows the listener to really enjoy the performance, unhindered by sonic annoyances. The performance was a live radio broadcast, with all of the intensity and power that the best such performances can have. Highly recommended as the definitive "historical" performance of the Verdi "Requiem".

Despite the sound, impressive!!:
A friend of mine listened to this CD and said: "Puff, it is hard to make a deconvolution between the trumpets and the rest of the orchestra"... That is, soloists are perfectly catched, but trumpets in Tuba Mirum fill everything and you cannot hear the chorus just in the beginning. Violins are hardly audible in some parts but, on the whole, it is a very, very great performance. First, you can make a comparative with famous Giulini's Requiem, stereo sound, and it is incredible to see that his Kyrie is slower than Tosca's, losing all the strength and frenzy environment that Tosca achieves. But, Giulini's goes revved up in Dies Irae, much more that Tosca's, and again loses enchantment. Tuba Mirum is much more the same tempo for both. Briefly, Tosca yields a more uniform performance than Giulini and that is why this performance catches you up with emotion and strength. It is sublime, pity for the mono and loudness of the trumpets. Regarding the soloists, Di Stefano is simply gorgeous. His top register is brilliant here, and his phrasing seductive as ever. But when you go to Hostias, it is "perfection". I have listened to it 20 times or more, incredible his singing there. In Giulini's, Pavarotti is sensational too, but Di Stefano is capable to touch the Heaven itself. The bass, Siepi, is attractive in all his register with his widened rich voice. Herva Nelli sounds like Callas, yes, in certain low tones, and, for the mezzo, Barbieri, compare to the Giulini's one in Kyrie. She is more "menacing and loose" when singing "Christe", ... In summary, a great performance, that maybe, is the Reference.

At long last, Toscanini's recordings are somewhat listenable:
I have enjoyed Toscanini's performances of classical music since I was a teenager, now almost 35 years ago, but I was never very happy about the thin, shrill sound of his recordings. Why did they sound so bad? It took me years to discover that, unlike Stokowski or Koussevitzky, Toscanini had no interest in the technical side of making records. As long as he could hear all the orchestral "voices," he was content, if not entirely happy. This left the technical end of the business up to various producers and engineers at RCA, many of whom had their own crackpot ideas about how to position microphones. (Please remember, the early RCA Opera Series LPs sounded just as thin, shrill and dry as Toscanini's recordings; remember the Reiner "Carmen," or the Cellini recordings of "Rigoletto" and "Il Trovatore.") What this did was compress the tremendous crescendos that Toscanini achieved, turning them into crunching sounds that simply overwhelmed the microphones. And then, when these tapes were processed into LP discs, they compressed the sound even more, with the result that Toscanini sounded as if he were conducting a military band in your bathroom instead of a real, live symphony orchestra in Carnegie Hall. With the advent of 20-bit remastering, however, and the dedication of real music-lovers intent on restoring (as much as possible) the sound of the original tapes, RCA has issued a mere 24 CDs of the Toscanini legacy in this new format (in 12 2-CD sets). Luckily, the series includes his Beethoven symphonies, which were landmarks of the time, as well as Italian orchestral music that meant a lot to him (see listings). And it also includes these 1950-54 performances of the Cherubini Requiem, as well as the Verdi Requiem and Te Deum. Words cannot describe how wonderful this Verdi Requiem sounds, especially in comparison to the original LPs (may they rest in pieces). Only in two or three places do the massed sound of choirs, brass, strings and percussion have the "nasty" crunching sound as in the past. Otherwise, even in the "Libera me," the percussion and brass sounds wonderfully natural. And, finally, one can hear the natural Carnegie Hall ambience around the voices of the soloists, Herva Nelli, Fedora Barbieri, Giuseppe DiStefano and Cesare Siepi, who are all in fabulous voice. As for the performance: I have been told by many Toscanini experts that his 1940 performance with Milanov and Jussi Bjorling far surpasses this one, but I once owned that recording and don't you believe it. Granted, the "Ingemisco" and "Offertorio" are swifter and tauter here than in the 1940 recording, but they sound wonderful in context. Indeed, I found myself both emotionally moved and intellectually satisfied by this Requiem as I have been by no other...not even the great Giulini and Karajan recordings. For the first time EVER, I perceived an underlying structure in the work, rather than just hearing it as a sort of suite of interesting but disconnected fragments. I also heard orchestral details that passd unnoticed in even the best digital stereo versions, i.e. sinister oboes and bassoons in the earlier sections, pizzicato strings in the "Libera me." Please, please believe me, this is a MIRACULOUS performance. The "Te Deum," from 1954, boasts the most modern and natural sound of all. But what really surprised me was the clarity and warmth imparted to the Cherubini Requiem, which was recorded in the "notorious" Studio 8-H. Suffice to say that, in comparison to all other available versions of these works, these are THE preferred performances...especially so now that you can actually hear them without cringing.

• I. Requiem & Kyrie
• II. Dies Irae: Dies Irae
• II. Dies Irae: Tuba Mirum
• II. Dies Irae: Mors Stupebit
• II. Dies Irae: Liber Scriptus
• II. Dies Irae: Quid Sum Miser
• II. Dies Irae: Rex Tremendae
• II. Dies Irae: Recordare
• II. Dies Irae: Ingemisco
• II. Dies Irae: Confutatis
• II. Dies Irae: Lacrymosa
• III. Offertorio: Domine Jesu Christe
• III. Offertorio: Hostias
• IV. Sanctus
• V. Agnus Die
• VI. Lux Aeterna
• VII. Libera Me: Libera Me, Domine
• VII. Libera Me: Dies Irae
• VII. Libera Me: Libera Me, Domine
• Four Sacred Pieces, No.4: Te Deum
• I. Introitus Et Kyrie
• II. Graduale
• III. Dies Irae
• IV. Offertorium
• V. Sanctus
• VI. Pie Jesu
• VII. Agnus Dei