Editing Arturo Toscanini (section)

==Recorded legacy==
{{main|Arturo Toscanini discography}}

===Overview===
Toscanini made his first recordings in December 1920 with the La Scala Orchestra in the Trinity Church studio of the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] in [[Camden, New Jersey]], and his last with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in June 1954 in [[Carnegie Hall]]. His entire catalog of commercial recordings was issued by [[RCA Victor]], save for two recordings for Brunswick in 1926 (his first by the electrical process) with the [[New York Philharmonic]] and a series of recordings with the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] from 1937 to 1939 for [[EMI]]'s [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]] label (issued in the US by RCA Victor, EMI's American affiliate). Toscanini also conducted the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall for RCA Victor in several recordings in 1929 and 1936. He made a series of long-unissued recordings with the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] for RCA Victor in Philadelphia's Academy of Music in 1941 and 1942. All of Toscanini's commercially issued RCA Victor and EMI recordings have been digitally remastered and released on [[compact disc]]. There are also recorded concerts with various European orchestras, especially with [[La Scala]] Orchestra and the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]].
In 2012, [[RCA Red Seal]] released a new 84 CD boxed set reissue of Toscanini's complete RCA Victor recordings and commercially issued EMI recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.<ref>{{Citation|title=Arturo Toscanini: The Complete RCA Collection|date=2012|url=https://www.amazon.com/Arturo-Toscanini-The-Complete-Collection/dp/B006VKKAWQ/ref=pd_rhf_ee_shvl39|access-date=2023-03-17|publisher=RCA Red Seal|language=English}}</ref> In 2013, [[EMI Classics]] issued a 6-CD set containing Toscanini's complete EMI recordings with the BBC Symphony. 
Toscanini's dislike of recording was well-known; he especially despised the acoustic method, and for several years he recorded only sporadically as a result. He was fifty-three years old and had been conducting for thirty-four years when he made his first records in 1920, and did not begin recording on a regular basis until 1938, after he became conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra at the age of seventy. Over the years as the recording process improved, so did Toscanini's attitude towards making records and eventually he became more interested in preserving his performances for posterity. The majority of Toscanini's recordings were made with the NBC Symphony and cover the bulk of his repertoire. These recordings document the final phase of his 68-year conducting career.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

===Specialties===
Toscanini was especially famous for his performances of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]] and his own compatriots [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]], [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], [[Arrigo Boito|Boito]] and [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]. He made many recordings, especially towards the end of his career, most of which are still in print. In addition, there are many recordings available of his broadcast performances, as well as his rehearsals with the NBC Symphony.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

===Charles O'Connell on Toscanini===
[[Charles O'Connell (music producer)|Charles O'Connell]], who produced many of Toscanini's early NBC Symphony recordings, stated that RCA Victor decided to record the orchestra in Carnegie Hall whenever possible, after numerous customer complaints about the flat and dull-sounding early recordings made in Studio 8-H in 1938 and 1939. Nevertheless, some recording sessions continued to be held in Studio 8-H as late as June 1950, probably because of alterations to the studio beginning in 1939, including installation of an acoustical shell in 1941 at the insistence of Leopold Stokowski before he temporarily replaced Toscanini as principal conductor of the NBC Symphony in the fall of 1941. O'Connell and others often complained the Maestro was little interested in the details of recorded sound and, as Harvey Sachs wrote, Toscanini was frequently disappointed that the microphones failed to pick up everything he heard as he led the orchestra. O'Connell even complained of Toscanini's failure to cooperate with him during the sessions. Toscanini himself was often disappointed that the 78-rpm discs failed to fully capture all of the instruments in the orchestra or altered their sound to such an extent they became unrecognizable. Those who attended Toscanini's concerts later said the NBC string section was especially outstanding.<ref>Eyewitness accounts by William Knorp, B.H. Haggin and others.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}</ref>

===The Philadelphia Orchestra recordings===
O'Connell also extensively documented RCA's technical problems with the series of recordings by Toscanini and the Philadelphia Orchestra, made in 1941–42, which required extensive electronic editing before they could be issued (well after Toscanini's death, beginning in 1963, with the rest following in 1977). Harvey Sachs also recounts that the wax masters were damaged during processing, possibly because of the use of somewhat-inferior materials imposed by wartime restrictions. Toscanini had listened to several of the test pressings and had given his approval to some of the recordings, rejected others and was prepared to re-record the unsatisfactory sides. Unfortunately, the 1942-44 [[James Petrillo|Petrillo]]/[[1942–44 musicians' strike|AFM recording ban]] had begun and prevented immediate retakes; by the end of the ban over two years later, the Philadelphia Orchestra's contract with RCA Victor had expired and the orchestra had signed with [[Columbia Records]]. RCA Victor apparently was now hesitant to promote the orchestra and recordings since it was now under contract to arch-rival Columbia and declared the defective Philadelphia masters unsalvageable. When told that RCA had finally decided to scrap the Philadelphia recordings, Toscanini vehemently exclaimed, "I worked like a dog!". The conductor eventually recorded all of the same music with the NBC Symphony. The best sounding of the Philadelphia recordings is the Schubert C-Major Symphony (The "Great"), which had been successfully restored and issued by RCA Victor in 1963. In 1968, the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to RCA and the company was now more favorable toward issuing all of the discs. RCA finally released a complete edition of the Toscanini/Philadelphia recordings in 1977, and it was suggested by Sachs and others at that date some of the masters may have deteriorated further. As for the historic nature of the recordings, even on the first RCA Victor compact disc issue, released in 1991, some of the sides have considerable [[surface noise]] and some distortion, especially during the louder passages. Nevertheless, despite the occasional problems, the sound has been markedly improved on CD, and the entire set is an impressive document of Toscanini's collaboration with the Philadelphia musicians. A second RCA CD reissue of the Philadelphia recordings from 2006 makes even more effective use of digital editing and processing in an attempt to produce improved sound. Longtime Philadelphia conductor [[Eugene Ormandy]] expressed his admiration for what Toscanini achieved with the orchestra.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

===High fidelity and stereo===
When [[magnetic tape]] replaced direct wax disc recording and high fidelity long-playing records were both introduced in the late 1940s, Toscanini said he was much happier making recordings. Sachs wrote that an Italian journalist, Raffaele Calzini, said Toscanini told him, "My son Walter sent me the test pressing of the [Beethoven] [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth]] from America; I want to hear and check how it came out, and possibly to correct it. These long-playing records often make me happy."<ref>Harvey Sachs, ''Toscanini'', pp. 302–303</ref>

NBC recorded all of Toscanini's broadcast performances on 16-inch {{frac|33|1|3}}&nbsp;rpm transcription discs from the start of the Maestro's broadcasts in December 1937, but the infrequent use of higher-fidelity sound film for recording sessions began as early as 1933 with the Philharmonic, and by December 1948, improved high fidelity made its appearance when RCA began using magnetic tape on a regular basis. High fidelity quickly became the norm for the company and the industry. NBC Radio followed, adopting the new technology in the fall of 1949 for its NBC Symphony broadcasts, among others. The first Toscanini recording sessions in Carnegie Hall followed immediately thereafter, although individual takes continued as with 78s, each running only about {{frac|4|1|2}} minutes. RCA continued in this vein with 7-inch tape reels until 1953, when long takes on 10-inch reels were finally implemented for the recording of Beethoven's ''Missa Solemnis''. With RCA's experiments in stereo beginning in early 1953 when two-track decks were first delivered by the engineers to the record producers (per Jack Pfeiffer, 11/77 interview, NYC, by CWR), stereo tapes were eventually made of Toscanini's final two broadcast concerts, plus the dress rehearsal for the final broadcast, as documented by Samuel Antek in ''This Was Toscanini'' and by Pfeiffer. These followed test sessions in New York's [[Manhattan Center]] in December of Delibes with members of the Boston Symphony under Pierre Monteux, in February 1954 with the full Boston Symphony under Charles Munch in Berlioz' ''Damnation of Faust'', and in early March with the NBC Symphony in Manhattan Center again under Stokowski doing the Beethoven ''Pastoral'' symphony. For Toscanini, later in March and in early April, the microphones were placed relatively close to the orchestra with limited separation, so the stereo effects were not as dramatic as the commercial "Living Stereo" recordings RCA Victor began to make in March with the Chicago Symphony, just a few weeks earlier. Two days after the final concert, [[Guido Cantelli]] took the podium in a hastily organized session to record the Franck Symphony in D minor, for RCA Victor using the same microphone and equipment set-up put in place for the Maestro. The stereo version of the recording was finally released on LP by RCA in 1978 ([[Warner Music Group]] now holds the rights and has issued several CD versions). Toscanini's June sessions were recorded monophonically to correct unsatisfactory portions of the broadcast recordings of ''Aida'' and ''Un Ballo in Maschera''.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

One more example of Toscanini and the NBC Symphony in stereo now also exists in a commercially available edition. This one is of the January 27, 1951, concert devoted to the Verdi ''Requiem'', previously recorded and released in high-fidelity monophonic sound by RCA Victor. Recently a separate NBC tape of the same performance, using a different microphone in a different location, was acquired by [[Pristine Audio]]. Using modern digital technology the company constructed a stereophonic version of the performance from the two recordings which it made available in 2009. The company calls this an example of "accidental stereo".{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

===Notable recordings===
{{ external media | float = right| width = 230px | audio1 = 1952 performance featuring Arturo Toscanini (conductor) of [[Johannes Brahms]] [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 4 in E Minor Opus 98]] with the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]] [https://archive.org/details/JohannesBrahms-SymphonyNo.4InEMinorOp.98-PhilharmoniaOrchestra '''on archive.org''']}}

Among his most critically acclaimed recordings, many of which were not officially released during his lifetime, are the following (with the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra|NBC Symphony]] unless otherwise shown):

*[[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], [[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 3]] "Eroica" (1953; also 1939 and 1949 recordings)
*Beethoven, [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 6]] "Pastoral" (1952)
*Beethoven, [[Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 7]] (1936, [[New York Philharmonic|Philharmonic-Symphony of New York]])
*Beethoven, [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 9]] (1952 and 1938) (only the 1952 recording was released officially)
*Beethoven, [[Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)|Missa Solemnis]], (1953 and 1940 NBC broadcast) (Only the 1953 version was released officially.)
*[[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], ''[[Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz)|Roméo et Juliette]]'' (1947 NBC broadcast) (only excerpts released during Toscanini's lifetime)
*[[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]], [[Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 1]] (1941)
*Brahms, [[Symphony No. 2 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 2]] (1952 and February 1948 broadcast)
*Brahms, Symphony No. 3 (February 1948 broadcast) (October 1952 concert, Philharmonia Orchestra)
*Brahms, [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 4]] (1951 and 1948 broadcast)
*[[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]], Four Symphonies, Tragic Overture and Haydn Variations, 1952, [[Philharmonia Orchestra]], London (his only appearances with that orchestra, produced by [[Walter Legge]]).
*[[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], ''[[La mer (Debussy)|La mer]]'' (1950 and 1940 broadcast; only the 1950 version was released officially)
*[[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]], [[Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)|Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"]] (1953)
*Mendelssohn, Incidental Music from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', (NBC 1947, studio and broadcast versions; Philadelphia 1941); Scherzo, New York Philharmonic, (1929)
*[[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], [[Symphony No. 4 (Mendelssohn)|Symphony No. 4 "Italian"]], (1954, exists in two versions: one as approved by Toscanini with excerpts from the rehearsals, and the unedited broadcast)
*Mendelssohn, [[Symphony No. 5 (Mendelssohn)|Symphony No. 5 "Reformation"]], (1942 broadcast, 1953 studio recording. The 1953 version is the one officially released.)
*[[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]], ''[[La bohème]]'' (1946 broadcast)
*[[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], ''[[Die Zauberflöte]]'' (1937, [[Salzburg Festival]]; poor sound)
*[[Modeste Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]], ''[[Pictures at an Exhibition]]'' (1938, 1948 and 1953 broadcast, studio recording 1953, all of them in the version orchestrated by [[Maurice Ravel]]. The studio recording from January 1953 is the only one to have been officially released.)
*[[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], [[Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)|Symphony No. 9]] (Philadelphia, 1941; NBC 1947 and 1953)
*[[Tchaikovsky]], [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)|Piano concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23]], Vladimir Horowitz and NBC Symphony, (live recording of April 25, 1943 [[War Bonds]] benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, first issued in 1959 on LP by RCA Victor)
*[[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], ''[[Requiem (Verdi)|Requiem]]'' (1940 NBC broadcast; and 1951 studio recording)
*Verdi, ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]'' (1954 NBC broadcast)
*Verdi, ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]'' (1937, [[Salzburg Festival]] with restored sound on the Treasury of Immortal Performances label (Andante version out of print); 1950 NBC broadcast)
*Verdi, ''[[Rigoletto]]'' (Act III only, 1944; from World War II [[Red Cross]] benefit concert held in [[Madison Square Garden]], with the combined forces of the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony; the entire concert, complete with an auctioning of one of Toscanini's batons, was released on an unofficial recording in 1995)
*Verdi, ''[[Otello]]'' (1947 NBC broadcast)
*[[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg]]'' (1937, [[Salzburg Festival]]; original Selenophone sound-on-film recording restored on Treasury of Immortal Performances label (Andante version out of print).)

===Rarities===
There are many pieces which Toscanini never recorded in the studio; among these are:

*[[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]] Overture to ''Dinorah'' (1938, on Testament)<ref>{{Citation|title=NBC Symphony Broadcasts|url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LPS4NO|access-date=2023-03-17|publisher=Testament UK}}</ref>
*[[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]], Suite from ''[[Petrushka (ballet)]]'' (1940, on RCA Victor)
*[[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], Symphony No. 3 "Scottish" (1941, on Testament)
*[[Franz Schubert]], Symphony No. 2 (1940, on Testament)
*[[Dmitri Shostakovich]], Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad" (1942, on RCA Victor)
*[[Vasily Kalinnikov]], [[Symphony No. 1 (Kalinnikov)|Symphony No. 1]] (1943, on Testament)
*[[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], Symphony No. 2 (1946, on Testament)
*[[Arrigo Boito|Boito]], scenes from ''[[Mefistofele]]'' and ''[[Nerone (Boito)|Nerone]]'', [[La Scala]], Milan, 1948 – [[Arrigo Boito|Boito]] Memorial Concert.
*[[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]], Prelude to ''[[Khovanshchina]]'' (1953)

===Rehearsals and broadcasts===
[[File:Toscanini rehearsals.jpg|thumb|A few of the hundreds of hours of rehearsal tapes featuring Toscanini, residing in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound, a division of the [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]]]]
Many hundreds of hours of Toscanini's rehearsals were recorded. Some of these have circulated in limited edition recordings. Many broadcast recordings with orchestras other than the NBC have also survived, including: The New York Philharmonic from 1933 to 1936, 1942, and 1945; The BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1935 to 1939; The Lucerne Festival Orchestra; and broadcasts from the Salzburg Festival in the late 1930s. Documents of Toscanini's guest appearances with the [[La Scala]] Orchestra from 1946 until 1952 include a live recording of Verdi's ''Requiem'' with the young [[Renata Tebaldi]]. Toscanini's ten NBC Symphony telecasts from 1948 until 1952 were preserved in [[kinescope]] films of the live broadcasts. These films, issued by RCA on VHS tape and laser disc and on DVD by Testament, provide unique video documentation of the passionate yet restrained podium technique for which he was well known.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

===Recording guide===
A guide to Toscanini's recording career can be found in Mortimer H. Frank's "From the Pit to the Podium: Toscanini in America" in ''International Classical Record Collector'' (1998, 15 8–21) and Christopher Dyment's "Toscanini's European Inheritance" in ''International Classical Record Collector'' (1998, 15 22–8). Frank and Dyment also discuss Toscanini's performance history in the 50th anniversary issue of Classic Record Collector (2006, 47) Frank with 'Toscanini – Myth and Reality' (10–14) and Dyment 'A Whirlwind in London' (15–21) This issue also contains interviews with people who performed with Toscanini – Jon Tolansky 'Licia Albanese – Maestro and Me' (22–6) and 'A Mesmerising Beat: John Tolansky talks to some of those who worked with Arturo Toscanini, to discover some of the secrets of his hold over singers, orchestras and audiences.' (34–7). There is also a feature article on Toscanini's interpretation of Brahms's First Symphony – Norman C. Nelson, 'First Among Equals ... Toscanini's interpretation of Brahms's First Symphony in the context of others' (28–33)

===Arturo Toscanini Society===
In 1969, Clyde J. Key acted on a dream he had of meeting Toscanini by starting the Arturo Toscanini Society to release a number of "unapproved" live performances by Toscanini. As the magazine ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' reported, Key scoured the U.S. and Europe for off-the-air transcriptions of Toscanini broadcasts, acquiring almost 5,000 transcriptions (all transferred to tape) of previously unreleased material—a complete catalogue of broadcasts by the Maestro between 1933 and 1954. It included about 50 concerts that were never broadcast, but which were recorded surreptitiously by engineers supposedly testing their equipment.

A private, nonprofit club based in Dumas, Texas, it offered members five or six LPs annually for a $25-a-year membership fee. Key's first package offering included [[Brahms]]' ''German Requiem'', [[Haydn]]'s Symphonies Nos. 88 and 104, and [[Richard Strauss]]' ''[[Ein Heldenleben]]'', all NBC Symphony broadcasts dating from the late 1930s or early 1940s. In 1970, the Society releases included [[Sibelius]]' Symphony No. 4, [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]]'s "Scottish" Symphony, dating from the same NBC period; and a Rossini-Verdi-Puccini LP emanating from the post-War reopening of La Scala on May 11, 1946, with the Maestro conducting. That same year it released a Beethoven bicentennial set that included the 1935 ''Missa Solemnis'' with the Philharmonic and LPs of the 1948 televised concert of the ninth symphony taken from an FM radio transcription, complete with Ben Grauer's comments. (In the early 1990s, the kinescopes of these and the other televised concerts were released by RCA with soundtracks dubbed in from the NBC radio transcriptions; in 2006, they were re-released by Testament on DVD.)

Additional releases included a number of Beethoven symphonies recorded with the New York Philharmonic during the 1930s, a performance of [[Mozart]]'s Piano Concerto No. 27 on February 20, 1936, at which [[Rudolf Serkin]] made his New York debut, and a 1940 broadcast version of [[Beethoven]]'s ''[[Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)|Missa Solemnis]]''.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Because the Arturo Toscanini Society was nonprofit, Key said he believed he had successfully bypassed both copyright restrictions and the maze of contractual ties between RCA and the Maestro's family. RCA's attorneys were soon looking into the matter to see if they agreed. As long as it stayed small, the Society appeared to offer little real competition to RCA. But classical-LP profits were low enough even in 1970, and piracy by fly-by-night firms so prevalent within the industry at that time (an estimated $100&nbsp;million in tape sales for 1969 alone), that even a benevolent buccaneer outfit like the Arturo Toscanini Society had to be looked at twice before it could be tolerated.<ref>''Time'', March 2, 1970</ref>

Magazine and newspaper reports subsequently detailed legal action taken against Key and the Society, presumably after some of the LPs began to appear in retail stores. Toscanini fans and record collectors were dismayed because, although Toscanini had not approved the release of these performances in every case, many of them were found to be further proof of the greatness of the Maestro's musical talents. One outstanding example of a remarkable performance not approved by the Maestro was his December 1948 NBC broadcast of [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]]'s ''[[Symphonic Variations (Dvořák)|Symphonic Variations]]'', released on an LP by the Society. (A kinescope of the same performance, from the television simulcast, has been released on VHS and laser disc by RCA/BMG and on DVD by Testament.) There was speculation that the Toscanini family itself, prodded by his daughter Wanda, had sought to defend the Maestro's original decisions (made mostly during his last years) on what should be released. Walter Toscanini later admitted that his father likely rejected performances that were satisfactory. Whatever the real reasons, the Arturo Toscanini Society was forced to disband and cease releasing any further recordings.