Many of the Naxos Toscanini Concert Edition releases draw upon excellent-sounding “inside” sources. This all-Debussy broadcast from April 13, 1940, however, appears to stem from the same AM radio aircheck issued on a bygone private LP release, with the beginning of La Mer lopped off. Naxos’ equalization adds a healthy bass boost, but loud tuttis are as compressed as canned sardines. Of primary interest to Toscanini buffs is the Maestro’s only NBC performance of La Damoiselle élue. For my taste, Jarmila Novotna’s rich soprano sometimes overpowers the music’s elusive delicacy, yet she clearly relishes Toscanini’s lilting yet sturdy support. The remaining works are a shade more nuanced and flexibly phrased than Toscanini’s better-sounding RCA versions of La Mer, Iberia, plus the Nuages and Fêtes. Three rehearsal extracts fill out the set, including a half-hour sequence given over to shaping the concert’s opening work, the Marche écossaise. Here the Maestro’s volatile temperament and penchant for painstaking detail operate at full swing.
