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Calling this volume of the RCA Toscanini series
Orchestral Showpieces risks creating the impression that it is a set of barnstorming spectaculars often reserved for encores, which demand superb sound quality if they are to have the required effect. Sound which an archive release like this simply cannot deliver, though these remastered mono NBC Symphony Orchestra recordings from 1950-53 certainly fair very well in the strings and woodwinds, the brass and cymbals having a tendency to harshness in louder passages. Showpieces or not, the recordings are certainly significant. Mussorgsky's
Pictures At An Exhibition, (orchestrated by Ravel--with revisions by Toscanini) offers a solidly architectural "Great Gate Of Kiev". Richard Strauss's,
Death and Transfiguration and
Till Elenspiegel have a comparable musical drama to that which Toscanini brought to his Wagner recordings. Brahms's
Haydn Variations have real weight and formal power, while the
Hungarian Dances have a concentrated melody as well as superior sound. Equally, Tchaikovsky's
Nutcracker Suite glitters with a lightness of touch, contrasting with Toscanini's ceremonial, majestic reading of Sibelius's
Finlandia. The anthology concludes with "The Moldau" from Smetana's
Má Vlast, a colourful and aptly fluid interpretation. Without the unifying subject of previous volumes in the same series,
Orchestral Showpieces is akin to an extended concert, an opportunity to enjoy a diverse programme of immense musical artistry, lovingly presented by one of the 20th century's great conductors. Beautifully presented, these classic recordings make a most welcome return to the catalogue.
--Gary S. Dalkin
