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Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 1-3

Martha Argerich, piano
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor



Samuel Barber
Orchestral Works and Concertos
Leonard Slatkin, Charles Munch



Rimsky-Korsakov
Evgeny Svetlanov


Beethoven
Symphony No.9
Piano Transcription by Franz Liszt
Konstantin Scherbakov, Piano



Kronos Caravan

We have Arrigo Boito to thank for writing the brilliant libretti to Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff and for composing the monumental, if erratic, bass showpiece Mefistofele.  This release in Guild’s Arturo Toscanini series make the case that Boito was, in fact, one of the pivotal figures in late 19^th and early 20^th century Italian musical drama and explores his relationship with the fiery maestro.  The highlight is a remastered recording of the 1948 La Scala gala that Toscanini conducted to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of Boito’s death. 

Boito was a brainy, temperamental but generous colleague. In 1898, he helped persuade La Scala administrators to hire the then-31-year-old Toscanini as music director after hearing him conduct performances of Gotterdammerung and Falstaff in Turin. Toscanini never forgot the gesture.  He repeatedly urged Boito to complete the opera Nerone, a potboiler about the rise of Christianity in pagan Rome that Boito labored over for half a century.  When the composer died just before the end of World War I without finishing the manuscript, Toscanini kept a vigil next to the bier the night before the funeral and, later, helped supervise completion of the opera, even mounting an expensive production of it at La Scala in 1924.

Following World War II, Toscanini returned to his old base from America to pay homage to his mentor in an evening of fully staged scenes from the two operas.  The performance showcased two of Italy’s finer, young voices: the great lyric bass Cesare Siepi and the mezzo Giulietta Simionato.  Toscanini also brought two of his favorite young singers from the United States in lyric soprano Herva Nelli and baritone Frank Guarrera.  It was a memorable evening, judging from the audience response and contemporary accounts.  However, its overall impact cannot be judged on this recording due to the poor sound, which was culled from an Italian radio broadcast captured on acetate discs.  A single microphone placed in close proximity to the orchestra periodically loses the voices as the singers move about on stage.  Turntable knocks and odd transmission whistles, apparently captured on an open microphone in the broadcast booth, further obscure nuance and inflection.

With a bit of imagination, one still can visualize audience members having their ears pinned to the back of the auditorium by Toscanini’s intense account of the Prologue to Mefistofele.  The pace of this highly original, dissonant piece is slower than his famous RCA account but no less effective, thanks to the La Scala chorus, which makes one’s hair stand on end in the huge crescendo leading up to the finale. Toscanini draws a taut performance from the Scala orchestra, whose ringing brass fanfares and crashing, dramatic entrances sound suitably grand, but never sound over-the-top.

Pride of place among the vocalists goes to Siepi, whom Toscanini chose for the performance over the more established Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, and who displays smooth legato phrasing and a wonderfully lyric approach.  He is a somewhat suave devil, neither as frightening as Norman Treigle or as obnoxious as Samuel Ramey, to mention two more contemporary interpreters.  His powerful entrance in “Ave, Signor” portends the major career he enjoyed on both sides of the Atlantic.  Nelli was not a huge star, but turns in a gripping performance in Act III’s “L’altra notte in fondo al mare,” capturing the imprisoned Margherita’s pitiful, delirious state in what is for many the best music in the opera.  Though there is nothing particularly remarkable about the quality of her lyrico-spinto voice, the bright tonal quality makes one hark back to the days when the idiomatic “Italian” sound was more the rule than the exception.

The infrequently heard Nerone is represented here by the complete third act and by Act IV Scene 2.  As in Mefistofele, Boito uses recurring musical motives to move the plot along. The arias have a cut-and-dry aspect that recalls a comment Verdi himself once made about Boito’s music, opining that it a certain melodic substance. Without accompanying text, one is left to wonder just how substantial the piece really is.  Regardless, Siepi  and Nelli again stand out as Simon Mago and Asteria, and the young Simionato, just coming into her own as a La Scala star, turns in an affecting performance as the Vestal virgin Rubria.

Guild tacks on several bonus cuts featuring Toscanini and the La Scala orchestra in marginally better recordings, including limpid performances of the Act I and III preludes to La Traviata from a disk released only in Brazil as a benefit for Casa Verdi in 1951.  There also is a pleasing Beethoven First Symphony that is elegantly played but won’t provide revelations for anyone familiar with Toscanini’s later readings of the piece.

Overall, the release should be mandatory listening for music history buffs, especially those accustomed to the hiss and pop of antique recordings.  For others, it is an intriguing, but not mandatory, purchase.

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