For the first 50 years,
Arturo Toscanini didn't like English orchestras. He thought they were sloppy and despite the promise of huge fees,
Toscanini refused to conduct English orchestras. He only changed his mind for a series of Beethoven concerts in the autumn of 1937 because the orchestra would be the
BBC Symphony, the most thoroughly disciplined orchestra in England. With the superb training of
Adrian Boult and more rehearsal time, the
BBC was as fine an orchestra as the English had. In 1938, EMI issued recordings of three of those concerts -- a taut Symphony No. 1, a tight Symphony No. 4, and a nervous Symphony No. 6 -- and in 1980 they added a tense Symphony No. 7. The
BBC may have been the best trained orchestra in England but
Toscanini didn't trust it and his conducting was stiff and the symphony's playing was rigid.
With this disc, Music & Arts adds a terrifying Ninth to the list of
Toscanini/
BBC performances. The November 3 Ninth was recorded on discs the thickness of tissue paper and while producer Mark Obert-Thorn has done everything humanly possible to clarify the sound, the surface noise throughout is often nearly impenetrable and the Adagio is almost unlistenable. Through the sonic haze, however, the listener can make out
Toscanini terrifying the
BBC Orchestra.
Toscanini's basic tempos are fast and his rhythms are clipped, revealing flaws in the
BBC's playing.
Toscanini accelerates into climaxes only to pull back at the tops of phrases, a trick that trips up the
BBC's ensemble nearly every time. The soloists are more than acceptable, but the chorus is shoddy and
Toscanini drives them unmercifully. That the choral finale is sung in English only makes it worse.