Toscanini is not immediately
associated with the performance of large-scale
choral music, except perhaps for Verdi’s
Requiem. So it can come as something
of a surprise that he conducted the
first Italian performance of Verdi’s
‘Te Deum’, the longest and most successful
of the four late sacred pieces. This
disc is the record of a concert that
Toscanini gave with the NBC Symphony
Orchestra in 1945. All three works involve
a substantial choral part, though of
course the Bellini and Boito items are
operatic in origin.
In his excellent accompanying
essay William Youngren refers to Toscanini’s
Bellini performance in the following
terms: ‘excitingly different from
others is his complete avoidance of
the "delicate" and lyrical
style most conductors routinely apply
to Bellini’
Whilst this is true,
as far as it goes, I found the resulting
performance had a welcome muscularity
during the instrumental introduction,
but that the vocal/choral passages had
an emphasis of articulation and lack
of singing line which was reminiscent
of performances of early Verdi rather
than Bellini. It does not help that
the bass soloist, Nicola Moscona, uses
his impressive voice in a rather emphatic
manner lacking in a feeling for lyrical
line.
Moving on to the Verdi,
the issue of the qualities of performance
by the chorus comes more into play.
What constitutes the ideal choral performance
style is something that changes over
time. This is emphasised by listening
to the amazing vowel sounds from the
pre-war BBC choirs or the startling
sound quality of the French choir who
gave the premiere of Poulenc’s Mass
and received numerous plaudits from
him. So my comments on the unnamed chorus
might be thought of as a little unfair.
But I did find that their vocal qualities
detracted from the performance; there
was too much vibrato and far too little
sense of line. The chorus are impressive
and thrilling in the louder, more emphatic
passages, but in the quieter sections
the sense of line and intensity is lost,
thus compromising the music. This is
a shame as Toscanini conducts a performance
which is in many ways admirably subtle
and not a little restrained, despite
the inevitable bellicose moments.
The final item on the
CD, the prologue from Boito’s ‘Mefistofele’
receives a vigorous performance. Curiously,
though a weaker work, it seems to receive
a rather stronger, more vital performance,
particularly where the chorus is concerned.
Moscona is an excellent soloist in this
work, more suited to his role than in
the Bellini. Though, in many ways, it
is an unsatisfactory opera ‘Mefistofele’
does have some remarkable imaginative
touches. The prologue is a tremendous
work and here Toscanini coordinates
its many disparate elements into a powerful
whole.
This disc is an important
historical document and though not of
impeccable quality (the disc is a conflation
of three different sources), the engineer
Richard Caniell’s work has ensured that
the resulting disc is perfectly acceptable.
One curiosity, which emphasises the
disc’s historical status, is the preservation
of the broadcast commentary, a delightful
period detail. As a historical document
of one of the 20th century’s
greatest conductors we should accept
these performances gratefully and not
worry too much about how they compare
to our ideal.
Robert Hugill
see also
review by Robert Farr
Nicola Moscona (bass) 