Search - Felix [1] Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Arturo Toscanini :: Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture; Symphony No. 3; Schumann: Symphony No. 2

Powerful Mendelssohn & Schumann

Robert E. Nylund | Ft. Wayne, Indiana United States | 03/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Toscanini had a special fondness for the music of the early Romantic, German composers Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann. That is quite apparent from the various recorded performances we have of the Maestro conducting such treasures as Mendelssohn's incidental music for Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and the "Italian" Symphony No. 4, both recorded with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and approved for release.



One of the real wonders, however, is Toscanini's interpretation of Schumann's "Symphony No. 3," the only five-movement symphony the composer wrote. It is deeply-moving, powerful, sometimes dramatic music which Toscanini managed to comprehend and bring nuances most conductors have missed. The intensity of Toscanini's performance, beginning with the very exciting first movement and continuing onto the triumphant final movement is dominated by brilliant playing by the NBC Symphony's strings and some wonderful performances by the French horns. (Schumann apparently had a great fondness for the horns and he used them well in his orchestral music). I've always admired the fourth movement, which was inspired by Schumann's 1850 visit to the massive cathedral in Cologne; Toscanini captures the great awe that the composer expressed in this music.



The second symphony is another powerful work and, although Toscanini remarkably did not approve the performance for commercial release, this may be one of the best recorded performances of the music. Among the later recordings which may have come close was the stereo version by Otto Klemperer and the New Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI. The Toscanini version is clearly the best, even if it lacks the full dimension of stereo. This is music which again shows us the conflicting emotions that drove the composer and eventually led to his emotional collapse; fortunately, he was able to compose remarkable music such as this before he could no longer contine composing.



The Hebrides overture, sometimes called "Fingal's Cave," was among the works of Mendelssohn inspired by his visit to Scotland. That trip also led to the "Symphony No. 3," his so-called "Scottish" symphony (which Toscanini also performed with the NBC Symphony). This is again very dramatic music which is given a definitive performance."

The Maestro's Schumann

Larry Neal Poole | Matthews, NC United States | 08/07/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc shows The Maestro in fine form. I had not heard his 1941 recording of Schumann's Symphony No. 2, which was not officially approved for release during his lifetime. I have always been very partial to this composer's music. The four symphonies are among my favorites. As with Mendelssohn, I never heard anything by Schumann that I didn't like.



Toscanini's interest in Schumann was mostly confined to the Manfred Overture and the "Rhenish" Symphony. He never performed the First Symphony, and prepared the Fourth only once--in 1931, with the New York Philharmonic. He conducted the Second a number of times. The Cello Concerto was given just one performance with the NYPO and Alfred Wallenstein as soloist in 1933.



The first two movements are given bracing tempos, but not excessively fast. The adagio, while also played faster than Schumann's tempo indication would suggest, integrates the fugal digression in the movement with less of a jolt than when played more slowly. The finale is majestic and noble, and, as Mortimer H. Frank commented, the performance as a whole is among the glories of Toscanini's years at NBC.



Toscanini, contrary to the rigid literalist reputation attributed to him in some quarters, could and did make changes in scores from Beethoven to Debussy. As Mahler and others did before him, he retouched the Second Symphony's orchestration in this performance, particularly in the first and fourth movements to striking effect. Many conductors have contended that Schumann's orchestration was "thick" or "muddy" and didn't "sound."



A notable exception to this viewpoint was George Szell, who contended, "Schumann's symphonies are orchestrally conceived, if not altogether expertly realized, and the inspiring image of orchestral sound can be found often enough even in his piano works." He condemns Mahler's "...wholesale reorchestration of the symphonies...a most unfortunate mistake on the part of a great conductor." "Mahler adulterates the character of these works by wrapping them in a meretricious garb of sound completely alien to their nature and in some instances even goes so far as to change the music itself."



In this recording, Toscanini makes some striking changes in the orchestration at the close of the first and fourth movements. Toscanini rewrites the trumpet part in the first movement's coda from a descending fourth to an ascending fifth (C-G)in order to mirror an earlier statement in the movement. This revision is central to the movement's structure and is not done to clarify the sound, or to enrich color.



The most startling revision occurs in the fourth movement four bars before the final chords when Toscanini again transposes the trumpet up a fifth (C-G)to re-emphasize the interval cited in the first movement. This time, however, the effect is in questionable taste. The Maestro must have realized this, however, because he dispensed with this revision in his performance of 1946.



Mendelssohn's "Scottish Symphony (No.3)is given a well proportioned and sympathetic reading. Toscanini was partial to Mendelssohn's music and left fine readings of the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies and the Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream. His reading of the Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture is among the best this listener has heard. Brahms once remarked,"If only I could write an overture like The Hebrides.""