TOSCANINI

14 February 1953 – All Debussy

The Complete Concert - Carnegie Hall

Ibéria
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
La mer

NBC Symphony Orchestra

The broadcast, in excellent sound with broadcast commentary and a pandemonious ovation, preserves a striking performance of La Mer. Toscanini was among the most famed interpreters of La Mer in the last century and a champion of the score ever since it was written. In the rehearsal you will hear La Mer taken apart in ways that introduce, in quite an unaccustomed way just how marvelous this score is. The rehearsal — exacting, tempestuous — reveals the Maestro’s ear for the smallest detail: the shimmer of a cymbal that he hears as ugly; the gradation he asks from the harp; the phrasing and interweave he seeks from the clarinet with the other instruments, all fascinating and illuminative of this score — one of the great orchestral masterpieces of the twentieth century. For those who prize Toscanini’s recreation of Debussy’s magnum opus, this Guild album is a revelation. With articles about the work and the rehearsal, photos by Robert Hupka. A treasure!