Arturo Toscanini -GOTTERDAMMERUNG- Last Concert 1954

[egonsky]

Cause they play WITH SOUND and ON THE BEAT!!!!! Bravo Maestro and bravo NBC...

[Fasolt100]

Molto bella ma, la mia preferita, è quella diretta dal M° nel 1949.

Comunque, sono entrambe da antologia.

[SteveAndrewLangford]

I am sorry, but I'm not very familiar with Wagner's works (yet). This sounds like an overture, is it? Sorry for my ignorance!

[musoderelict]

@SteveAndrewLangford Never need to be sorry! Actually it's Part 2 of the Prologue to Act 1. If you saw the opera, Siegfried and Brunhilde would be singing in the early minutes of this, in a rapturous love duet (voices removed in this version), before Siegfried sails of into the sunset, down the Rhine, in search of heroic adventures to prove his love ...

(Personally, I think the storyline is corny as - but the music - that's a different story. Hope you come to love it as much as I do!)

[SteveAndrewLangford]

@musoderelict I found the location of this piece a few days after I posted this.It is completely beautiful, nothing less from Wagner. If you go to my channel and see the Lohengrin prelude, go to that channel to find a HD, stereo version of this recently released. Even more beautiful!

[pointreyes6]

I don't find this conducting very inspiring at all, it's all abit flat.

If only Mahler had lived longer we might had heard something!

[56LEBON1]

Altro che Tielemann......

[1965jeanpaul1965]

Greatly exciting, viva il Maestro e viva Wagner! Thank you for this gift.

[billyguns2]

I have never cared much for Toscanini's Wagner, and the main reason is the awful, blatty sounding American brass and subdivided beats with downward musical impetus; the NBC strings, as usual, cover themselves in glory and the winds are good too. The overall musical result is choppy; Beecham called Toscanini "that bandmaster." Ah, but in Beethoven and Italian music Toscanini was incomparable!

[josefkesselring]

Indeed. Toscanini's Wagner is a bit like Furtwängler's Verdi.

[billyguns2]

Good observation.

[Raggedy9]

@billyguns2 To each his own, but it is a fact that Wagner's children found Toscanini's Wagner conducting a revelation, far superior to anyone else's they had heard. Perhaps by his 80s Toscanini's conducting had become more rigid--to get an idea of him in his prime, listen to his 1937 Salzburg Meistersinger. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[billyguns]

@Raggedy9 Thank you for bringing Toscanini's 1937 Salzburg Meistersinger to my attention, which is indeed a "revelation;" a singing, highly musical and beautifully shaped performance of the Prelude comes shining through the dim sound. I was also surprised by the fact that he conducted there as late as 1937, given his vocal opposition to Hitler and fascism.

[Raggedy9]

@billyguns Salzburg is in Austria, which Hitler didn't take over until 1938, so the Salzburg Festival was something of a beacon of the best of German culture opposed to Nazism. Toscanini refused however to work with German artists whom he saw as collaborating with the Nazis. I believe he refused to return to the 1938 festival even before the Anschluss because of concessions the Austrian government made to Germany.

[Raggedy9]

@billyguns If you listen to Toscanini's 1930s recordings of Beethoven symphonies with the NY Philharmonic you will be equally astonished. He was in his 60s then, and you get an idea of what all the fuss was about. I think he was unsurpassed in his prime, and imagine he was in his youth as well. 

[SteveAndrewLangford]

@Raggedy9 Exactly! Toscanini worked to make the Bayreuth Festival with Wagner's wife? and kids. The Maestro stayed at their home and was practically begged to come every year, despite whatever had happened (either Toscanini had gotten mad, or the Wagners had done something Toscanini did not see was correct). Of course, the Maestro stopped going after Hitler became Chancellor. And yes, for some reason it appears that Toscanini did get more rigid as time went on, although it's arguable.

[SteveAndrewLangford]

@SteveAndrewLangford The Lucerne Festival, my bad!

[VinylToVideo]

Perhaps it was originally issued in mono on LP (if it was issued at all) but I have heard one of the recent CD releases and it was most definitely in stereo, as is this posting.

[shellac1925]

I am aware of stereo issues of this concert, but all of RCA's issues are in mono. That's what I meant. Anyway, I can't detect any difference between the left and right channels when listening through headphones.

[VinylToVideo]

Add "&fmt=18" to the end of the link at the top and it'll play in stereo.

[shellac1925]

Which link?

[VinylToVideo]

The URL link for this page. At the end of E6KeAtKo1aQ add &fmt=18 so it'll be E6KeAtKo1aQ&fmt=18

[shellac1925]

Wow! The recording's not perfect, but what a difference! You can hear what a great sonic blend Toscanini could get from the orchestra- every detail can be heard, and it doesn't sound as if it were recorded in a box. If only Furtwangler were recorded in stereo!

[raticida123456]

@shellac1925 ooh yes, his performance is very different than the new performers (few feeling) also the tempo in this is very good!

[jmccracken1963]

Now THIS is very good!!! Power is finally being exercised in THIS piece!!!!

[78timothy]

Despite his age & health @ the time of this broadcast, this man still had the command of the Orchestra. How Majestic

the continual build up to the first climax at 1:30 of this piece, the balance of the inner voices, being brought to the forefront at just the right time. He gives this peice the nobility that Wagner wrote into the score. Beautiful! Just goes to show that music on a large scale can be not only stately, but beautiful & tender. This is no way dragging. Thorough & well-played. 5*!

[webxyz777]

Wonderful performance. He was 87 years old and still able to do this. Dragging no way. I leave the dragging to the backmessers who nag at almost anything. Enjoy listening instead of nagging freudboy.

Furtwaengler made excellent recordings but why compare everything. Fritz Reiner did another great recording of this. All with a different approach.

[Freudboy]

Phew! Dragging tempi! He was out of his element in German music. He doesn't hold a candle to Furtwaengler.

[donho57]

And you're not out of your element in criticizing this? When can we get away from who conducts what better, and enjoy what is produced? This was three years before Toscanini passed on. Did you hear him conduct Wagner at Bayreuth to see if his tempi were still too slow decades before this when he was young and energetic? I am a classically trained musician, and I enjoy Furtwangler's recordings greatly as well, but I don't compare apples to oranges, I just listen and enjoy.

[tenorismo]

Dragging Tempo !!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding ? have you heard some of Furtwaglers recordings ? Listen to his recording of Tristan

[majosace]

And really isoin stereo sound. Great moment that you give to us about the MAESTRO, great goes by always. thank you very much