Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake Highlights / Stokowski, NBC So CD

 So this is how good the NBC were!
This is a fantastic discovery! Forget the fillers, which are fine and a bit of a novelty it’s the Swan Lake you need to hear. There is over 50 minutes of the score here conducted and played with enormous passion, style and virtuosity at tempos, admittedly, not conducive to dancing, but taken at big, bold symphonic tempi. It’s such a pity the stereo tapes were lost but even so the sound has been very well re-mastered and it’s a chance to hear Toscanini’s old hand-picked orchestra well recorded and not sounding as if they are in a phone booth covered by a blanket as in the Italian maestro’s RCA recordings. Here, we can really hear what a fabulous orchestra they were with a magnificent string section, expressive and individual woodwind tone and trenchant, burnished brass. It all had to come to an end of course and after Toscanini’s retirement from the NBC Orchestra in 1954 it was financially impossible to keep this stunningly fine orchestra together despite efforts to record them under the likes of Stokowski. They all went their separate ways after 1955 and other American orchestras reaped the benefits of these players joining their ranks. Stokowski doesn’t muck around with the music, as he had a tendency to do and treats Tchaikovsky’s superb orchestrations with respect. He gives us a real sense of theatre and although some sections are relentlessly hard driven there is always musicality and a swaggering style with impeccable attention to rhythms and detail. I don’t think you would expect to hear this music conducted or played this way today as it would be much more polite and smoothed over by today’s batch of largely characterless conductors. Certainly the orchestral timbre has changed nowadays and orchestras don’t give us the gritty, earthy qualities you hear on this disc. I might add that the playing is never coarse but has these above mentioned qualities within a framework of sophisticated tone, power and balance. Cala records are doing a great job in reviving many lost Stokowski recordings from the 50’s well before he embarked on his final sessions in London for Decca in the 60’s which due his advanced age were interesting but patchy. I urge you to hear this long missing gem and even if you have a number of suites or complete versions of this marvellous score this one is different.
Submitted by john (Sydney Australia) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No

Have you heard this album?