The best news here is that as well as illuminating the sound in
general, Pristine engineer Andrew Rose has been able to enhance the
previously inferior sound for the Third and Fourth symphonies so that it
matches that of the first two. Their better recorded sound explains why the
First and Second Symphonies have long been available and very recommendable
to anyone tolerant of mono. Now all four symphonies have some air around
them, the glare and harshness tamed and erratic pitch corrected. They are
still no aural feast but as with the Pristine re-mastering of
Furtwängler’s Brahms from the 1940s and 1950s, the obvious
performances for purposes of comparison, a new depth and spaciousness have
been revealed and the listener’s enjoyment of the very different
approach to Brahms by both maestros has been enormously enhanced.
Furtwängler’s interpretation is generally much warmer and
more Romantic than Toscanini’s but there is certainly no lack
of feeling in the latter’s Andantes and Adagios, even though he
is on average some two minutes faster than Furtwängler. However,
the default position criticism of Toscanini - “he conducts everything
at breakneck speed” - hardly applies here, even if it is true
that he takes the opening to the First faster than any other conductor
I know. As is often the case when re-encountering Toscanini after listening
to more modern or later accounts of Brahms symphonies by Abbado and
Karajan, my first thoughts were that he was rather perfunctory and unyielding
- but the ear soon adjusts to what he is about. Once the second subject
of the magical Andante second movement in the First Symphony spirals
heavenward on soaring strings, you know that you are safe in the hands
of a master Brahms interpreter. It is possible to miss the depth of
sound we enjoy in those more recent recordings but Toscanini's insistence
upon individual instrumental lines emerging clearly pays dividends;
one hears harmonic details and nuances you do not always catch in warmer,
stereo sound. He is never speedy for its own sake; his direction is
always taut and purposeful, his frequent use of ritenuto judicious and
his phrasing sublime: the dotted second subject in the Andante sostenuto
in the First Symphony really sings, helped by the sweetness of the solo
by the NBC’s first violinist and the sonority of the contribution
of the principal horn. There is often a kind of febrile joy in Toscanini's
music-making which sweeps the listener along; thus the Scherzo is breathless
but exhilarating - more "allegro" than a true "allegretto" - but it
works. Not that Toscanini cannot plumb the depths; there is a brooding
majesty to the Adagio opening of the fourth movement, as a bemired C
minor struggles to emerge into the sunlit uplands of C major via those
plangent horn and flute solos and the Big Tune builds massively to an
explosive finale which is simply glorious with its uplifting, climactic
chorale.
Probably recognising Brahms’ reference to his symphony no.2 as
“elegiac and melancholy” as another of the sardonic
composer’s little ironic jokes, Toscanini eschews the dragginess which
afflicts recordings by such as Giulini and refuses to linger. He does not
replicate the fluidity that Karajan achieves, or the melodramatic
“Sturm und Drang” approach of Furtwängler, or the dark
warmth of Klemperer but, surprisingly, instead, aims for charm, again
phrasing gorgeously, catching Brahms’ Alpine holiday mood. The finale
is a little breathless and frenetic but Toscanini relaxes for the second
variation and eventually steers us home in the most exhilarating fashion
imaginable without adopting an especially fast tempo.
The Third is in many ways the most straightforward of Brahms’
symphonies
and elicits the most relaxed of Toscanini’s interpretations. He brings
a
confident swing to the frequent, swaying three-quarter-time rhythms which
run
throughout this symphony. Toscanini maintains a gentle pulse, moving
inexorably
towards a grand finale which is another of Brahms’ trademarks. The
Andante
finds Toscanini at his most genial, hence he is even slower than
Furtwängler,
Levine, Abbado and van Zweden. Then in the finale all that restraint is
thrown
aside for a rip-roaring Allegro before the return to serenity.
“Relaxed” is not the first word we usually apply to this
conductor, but the Fourth again finds him effortlessly synthesising the
plethora of ideas based around the interval of a third that flood this most
musically fertile of Brahms’ symphonies. There is a massive exuberance
about the conclusion, following the pattern we have seen in
Toscanini’s love-affair with Brahms. Technically, there are some
problems in the synchronisation between the violins and the rest of the
orchestra, symptomatic of the sense of urgency characteristic of Toscanini’s typical forward momentum.
Ralph Moore
Masterwork Index:
Brahms symphonies
