To continue with the editorial data regarding transfers (remastering) Sony has taken the latest available at RCA. This means that for the full 1950 Beethoven and other recordings of this set time, the magnificent 1997-1998 transfers are included here; The same goes for the legendary Philadelphia recordings labor RCA engineers were allowed to truly reveal, unwrapped and delivered dust. For the rest, the volumes are exactly taken from Toscanini edition of the early 1990s, then sold CDs for gold and had the merit of being based on the original sources of registration, which is generally the best thing to do for maximum quality.
Obviously everything is not perfect, and errors of the first edition Toscanini are somewhat stupidly reproduced: for example the absence of unfortunate first 4 bars of the opening of the Italian in Algiers by Rossini (CD 47), or even catastrophic postponement of Verdi's Otello (for which other editions are preferred, especially Naxos or Guild). But these defects remain rare accidents, just frustrating as they could have been avoided ...
The content finally, detailed below (Amazon is decidedly less accurate in the descriptions, I did my best but I could not identify all either beaches and dates). Here we find all the Toscanini legacy for RCA, studio and concert, or 90% of what the great Italian chef recorded. In addition, Sony also had the excellent idea of adding initially branded recordings HMV / EMI with the BBC Orchestra, concerts that allow to hear some of the finest of its Beethovenians records (particularly the 4th , one of those that Toscanini preferred and played the better).
For the rest vertices are obviously numerous. Beethoven also its historical controversies that are given here not only with the integral 1950s often deemed cold, but with earlier taken in concert, which reveal an intimacy with the obvious partitions and the ability to invent each time a new interpretation . Among the must, the French orchestral music (who better than Toscanini has so often offered La Mer?), Italian (starting with Respighi), the symphonies of Brahms (amazing, breathtaking), the Wagnerian extracts and tone poems of Richard Strauss, explosive with NBC Orchestra at the top. The concertante recordings, we would like more, are all essential, with Rubinstein and in Serkin Beethoven, Heifetz (violin), Horowitz in the mythical burning 1 concerto by Tchaikovsky.
Finally, of course, we piochera with great happiness among opera recordings, Toscanini remaining by fire engulf as much as he knew by the stars that gathered around him a reference source that always return ' drink when it comes to hear Verdi or Puccini.
If we must have some regrets it would not have even more: other recordings with the BBC (including the mythical Sea of 1935), with Scala (concert reopening for example) with NBC (from concerts yet it will fetch Naxos and elsewhere). But it is well known, bitter music lovers will get enough ...
CD 1-5: Beethoven (Symphonies 1-9 Overtures) Rec. 1949-1951
6-9 CD: Brahms (Symphonies 1-4 Overtures, Double Concerto: Mischakoff & Miller) Rec. 1948-1952
CD 10-11: Mozart (Symphonies 35, 39-41, Opening Wedding, Concerto for bassoon) Rec. 1946-1948 (1938-1939 +. Symph 40)
CD 12-13: Haydn (Symphonies 88, 94, 98, 99, 101, Sinfonia Concertante Hob.I-105) Rec. 1938-1953
CD 14-15: Schubert (Unfinished Symphony, Symphony No. 5 Symphony No. 9 "The Great" (2 versions)) Rec. 1947-1953
CD 16: Schumann (Symphony No. 3, Manfred Ouverture); Weber (Overture) Rec. 1946-1952
CD 17: Mendelssohn (Symphonies 4 & 5, Dream of a summer night, transcr Scherzo op. 20.) Rec. 1945-1954
CD 18-19: Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 6, The Nutcracker Suite, Manfred Symphony, Romeo & Juliet Ouverture) Rec. 1947-1951
CD 20: Franck (Symphony); Saint-Saëns (Symphony No. 3 with organ) Rec. 1940-1952
CD 21: Sibelius (Symphony No.2, Symphonic Poems) Rec. 1940-1952
CD 22: Shostakovich (Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad") Rec. 1942
CD 23: Beethoven (Symphonies No. 3 & 8) enr. 1939
CD 24: Dvorak (Symphony No. 9), Kodaly (continued Hary Janos), Smetana (The Moldau) Rec. 1947-1953
CD 25: Beethoven (Symphony No. 5, Op 20 Septet, Egmont.) Rec. 1939 (S5) & 1951-1953
CD 26: Brahms (Symphony No. 1 Serenade No. 1) Rec. 1941-1942)
CD 27: Cherubini, Cimarosa (openings)
CD 28: Prokofiev (Symphony No. 1), Shostakovich (Symphony No. 10), Glinka, Liadov, Stravinsky Rec (extr Petrushka.). 1940-1952
CD 29: Beethoven (Symphony No. 3), Mozart (Symphony No. 40) Rec. 1953 & 1950
CD 30-31 (. Extr Twilight; Siegfried-Idyll) R. Strauss (Don Quixote, Death & Transfiguration; Don Juan;; Till Eulenspiegel Dance of the 7 veils), Wagner Rec. 1952-1953 (1939-1946 + 7 + sails Wagner)
CD 32: Respighi (Pines of Rome Fountains of Rome, Roman Festivals) Rec. 1949-1953
CD 33-35: Berlioz (Harold in Italy: Carlton Cooley; Romeo and Juliet Op. 17); Bizet (Carmen & Suites Arlesienne) Rec. 1947-1953
CD 36: Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel arr.); Elgar (Enigma Variations) Rec. 1953 & 1951
CD 37: Mendelssohn (.. Think Extracts of a summer night Transcr Quintet op 20) Rec. 1947
CD 38: Debussy (La Mer, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Iberia, Nocturnes) Rec. 1948-1953
CD 39: Gershwin (An American in Paris); Sousa; Grofé (Grand Canyon Suite); Barber (Adagio); Smith Rec. 1942-1945
CD 40: Ravel (Daphnis & Chloe Suite); Franck (Psyche); Dukas (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) Saint-Saëns (Dance of Death); Berlioz (Roman Carnival; Mab Scherzo, Hungarian March); Thomas (Opening Mignon) Rec. 1945-1953
CD 41: Waldteufel; L. Mozart (Toy Symphony); J. Strauss II; Suppe; etc. (Dances, Waltzes, Overtures) Rec. 1939-1952
CD 42: Beethoven (Violin Concerto: Heifetz; Piano Concerto No. 3: Rubinstein) Rec. 1940 & 1944
CD 43: Beethoven (Piano Concerto No. 4: Serkin; Piano Concerto No. 1: Dorfmann) Rec. 1944 & 1945
CD 44: Brahms (Piano Concerto No. 2: Horowitz); Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No. 1: Horowitz) Rec. 1940 & 1941
CD 45: Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No. 1: Horowitz) Rec. 1943 + Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version Horowitz 1951)
CD 46: Beethoven (Leonore Overture II & III, Coriolan, Egmont, etc.) Rec. 1938-1947
CD 47: Gluck (Iphigenia in Aulis Extracts; Orfeo e Euridice); Beethoven (Excerpts from Fidelio) Rec. 1945-1952
CD 48: Rossini (Overture) Rec. 1945-1953
CD 49-50 & 53-54: Wagner (Preludes, Openings, Orchestral Excerpts) Rec. 1941-1952
CD 51-52: Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Puccini, Verdi, Humperdinck, Smetana ... (Overture) - Rec. 1941-1952
CD 55-56: Beethoven (Fidelio) Rec. 1944
CD 57-58: Puccini (La Bohème) Rec. 1946
CD 59-61: Verdi (Aida) Rec. 1949
CD 62-63: Verdi (Falstaff) Rec. 1950
CD 64-65: Verdi (Otello) Rec. 1947
CD 66-67: Verdi (Un ballo in maschera) Rec. 1954
CD 68-69: Verdi (La traviata) Rec. 1946
70-71 CD: Beethoven (Missa Solemnis) Rec. 1953 Cherubini (Symphony in D minor) Rec. 1950
CD 72-74: Verdi (opera extract; Requiem, Te Deum) Rec. 1943-1954
CD 75: Beethoven (Symphony No. 7); Haydn (Symphony No. 101); Mendelssohn (Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream) inc. 1926-1936
CD 76: Mozart (Symphony 35); Brahms (Haydn Variations); Wagner (Siegfried-Idyll); Dukas (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) Rec. 1929-1936
CD 77: Gluck; Rossini; Verdi; Wagner (Preludes, Openings, Extracts) Rec. 1929-1936
CD 78: Debussy (La Mer, Iberia); Respighi (Feste Romane) Rec. 1941-1942
CD 79: Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 6); R. Strauss (Death and Transfiguration) Rec. 1942
CD 80: Schubert (Symphony No. 9 The Great) Rec. 1941
CD 81: Mendelssohn (Dream of a Summer Night); Berlioz (Mab Scherzo) Rec. 1942
CD 82: Extracts of Beethoven's works, Berlioz, Bizet, Donizetti, Respighi, Massenet ... Rec. 1920-1921
CD 83: Beethoven (Symphony No. 4, I Leonore Overture), Mozart (Opening of the Magic Flute), Rossini, Berlioz, Weber - Rec. 1938-1939
CD 84: Beethoven (Symphonies No. 1 & 6), Brahms (Tragic Overture) Rec. 1937-1939
NBC Symphony Orchestra: CD 1-74
New York Philharmonic: CD 75-77
Philadelphia Orchestra: CD 78-81
Orchestra of La Scala of Milan: CD 82
BBC Symphony Orchestra: CD 83-84
Anyway, an expected release, historical, major. When we think of generations of music lovers who have discovered these hours disc after disc and for gold, one realizes the opportunity that is ours at present with such treasure chests!
WARNING. I have now had time to go around this case and there is a defect, error instead. While the Symphony No. 3 by Beethoven was to be present in his 1949 studio recording on CD 1 and in its public registration 1953 CD 29 (as specified in the covers), the 1953 version is actually double. Sony has apparently mixed brushes by putting on the full CD 1-5 in his remastering of 1999 in which the record in 1953 had just been substituted for that of 1949: therefore he should have put the version 1949 CD 29 and not that of 1953, and it was here that committed the fateful mistake. Not tragic but really unfortunate, especially since this 1949 studio has become quite difficult to find ...
