Arturo Toscanini
Beethoven - MISSA SOLEMNIS
Bjoerling – Milanov – Castagna – Kipins
The Westminster Choir - NBC Symphony Orchestra
The Complete Concert 28 December 1940
Beethoven - violin concerto in d op 61
Jasha Heifetz - Violin
NBC Symphony Orchestra
11 March 1940
CD Contents
CD 1 [65:32] |
|
1 |
Broadcast commentary |
2:40 |
2 |
Kyrie |
10:25 |
3 |
Gloria |
16:45 |
4 |
Credo |
17:58 |
5 |
Sanctus |
7:06 |
6 |
nedictus |
10:38 |
|
CD 2 [55:28] |
|
1 |
Agnus Dei |
7:40 |
2 |
Agnus Dei, dona nobis pacem
Violin Concerto in D major, op.61 |
8:26 |
3 |
– Allegro ma non troppo |
21:18 |
4 |
– Larghetto |
8:53 |
5 |
– Rondo: Allegro |
8:33 |
|
|
|
Reviews for CD 2248-49 Missa Solemnis
MusicWeb December 11 2003
Arturo Toscanini
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Missa Solemnis (1818-23)
Violin Concerto in D Op. 61 (1806)
Jussi Björling (tenor)
Zinka Milanov (soprano)
Bruna Castagna (contralto)
Alexander Kipnis (bass)
The Westminster Choir
Jascha Heifetz (violin)
NBC Symphony Orchestra/Arturo Toscanini
Recorded December 1940 (Missa Solemnis) and March 1940 (Violin Concerto)
I can’t imagine that this famous performance of the Missa Solemnis would face many
detractors in respect of the fervour and articulacy of its response. It has long
been held to be the greatest of Toscanini’s extant traversals and derives from a
broadcast in December 1940; the 1953 NBC set was his only commercial recording
but we are fortunate that this wartime broadcast has survived, as have an
earlier 1935 broadcast in indifferent sound and an impressive 1939 BBC broadcast
with Milanov, Thorborg, Koloman von Pataky and Nicola Moscona (BBC Legends
BBCL4016-2). The vivid drama is established immediately by the puncturing
trumpets calls. These have given rise to claims that the recorded balance is
askew; William Youngren in his notes makes a valiant case for the defence but I
think unavailingly. There are deficiencies in the sound spectrum but it could
hardly be otherwise in a work such as this, which requires the most acute of
balancing. Nevertheless apart from the solo singers, who are forwardly balanced,
the Westminster Choir makes a splendid impression. They were obviously well
rehearsed by their choirmaster and sound passionately engaged and tightly
focused in the Kyrie. The orchestra is equally on top form, responding with
decisive power to Toscanini’s breakneck speed in the Gloria - which after a
furious start relaxes. Vocally Björling and Kipnis take the greatest honours
with their unmatched response to the drama (the former’s entrance in the Credo is particularly telling, as is the latter’s nobility and declamation in the
Benedictus ). But Castagna, substituting for the ill Thorburg, is also impressive
in the Sanctus and Milanov joins orchestral leader Mischa Mischakoff in wondrous
phrasing in the Benedictus . The copies utilised do have some scuffs – these are
noticeable particularly in the Gloria and the Agnus Dei but the sound is
genuinely vivid and immediate. As for the performance it’s incandescent.
Coupled with it is the famous Heifetz-Toscanini recording of the Beethoven Violin
Concerto made earlier in the year, once more with the NBC Orchestra. This has
last appeared on a Naxos disc where it’s conjoined with the 1939 Heifetz Brahms
Violin Concerto conducted by Koussevitzky - I reviewed it on this
site and for interpretative matters I would direct readers there. Richard
Caniell, eminence grise of the enterprise, notes that this transfer was
undertaken as a result of complaints regarding the RCA BMG CD transfer. So for
this transfer they have utilised a commercial set in what they state to be "a
better sonic transfer" despite very honestly noting that the originals were
"afflicted with sporadic instances of grit and ticks not hearable in the RCA
disc." As well as the grit there are also a few residual thumps familiar to 78
collectors.
I suspect though that you will have long ago have acquired the Heifetz-Toscanini.
If you have the commercial Missa Solemnis I would augment it with this
demonstrably superior and blazing performance. It’s one of the greatest, if not
the greatest accounts ever committed to disc.
Jonathan Woolf
INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW June 2004
This Beethoven's Missa solemnis (Guild Historical GHCD 2248/49),
under the probing baton of Arturo Toscanini, is not the well-known 1953
recording, but a live performance taped at a concert in Carnegie Hall in 1940.
The NBC Symphony Orchestra is common to both recordings and on fine form in
each, but the Westminster Choir is perhaps a shade less responsive than the Shaw
Chorale in 1953. The soloists are another matter entirely. The 1940 team - Jussi
Björling, Zinka Milanov, Bruna Castagna and Alexander Kipnis - are in stupendous
voice, and much better recorded than their mediocre successors. There are some
controversial speeds, but the overwhelming excitement and drama of the music
will win over even the hardest heart. This has to be the finest historical
recording of the work currently available, and one of Toscanini's most visionary
Beethoven performances. This is the best remastering of the recording I've
heard: the lapses in pitch in the Gloria and before the 'Amens' at the
end of the Credo have been fixed, as has the trombone fluff at the very
beginning of the Credo.
Simon Heighes
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