Most Electrifying
Toscanini's Verdi Requiem
from Carnegie Hall -
enjoyed by
HOWARD SMITH'... I find the 1951 adrenalin rush positively exhilarating.'
|
|
Here it is again (at budget price): the last, most electrifying Toscanini recording of Verdi's theatrical, revelatory Messa da Requiem (1874), with the legendary conductor, aged eighty-four, in Carnegie Hall (27 January 1951).
The soloists were Herva Nelli, soprano, Fedora Barbieri, mezzo, Giuseppe di Stefano, tenor, and Cesare Siepi, bass, with the Robert Shaw Chorale and NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Belarusian David Sarnoff (1891-1971), who founded the (NBC) radio network (1926) in the GE Building at New York City's Rockefeller Center, established the company's radio orchestra for Toscanini in November 1937 and it performed weekly radio concert broadcasts with Toscanini and others, serving as house orchestra for the network until 1954.
When released on Toscanini Choral Works Vol 11 (RCA Victor Red Seal 74321-72373-2, ADD, monaural, 2000) in the company of the Te Deum and Luigi Cherubini's Requiem in C minor, it was described as '.....
Copyright © 23 October 2011
Howard Smith,
Katikati, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
|
