Ernst Toch (1887-1964) was one of many established Viennese composers who found work in Hollywood after fleeing the Nazi Anschluss. He was primarily an orchestrator and composer of “additional music”, often uncredited. His style is late German expressionist, very chromatic, but dramatic and with firm tonal direction. He became a composer of distinction while in America and won a Pulitzer Prize for his Third Symphony.
The Miniature Overture is a very short chamber-scored wind piece from 1932, cheeky in mood and crisply led by Jorge Mester. The 1969 recording sounds as if mastered from the LP, but the liner notes contradict this impression. Peter Pan (originally called “Fairy Tale for Orchestra”) was taped in mono in 1960. The playing is weak, and conductor Robert Whitney misses any sense of fantasy the music may hold. Another mono effort, from 1954 (Whitney), poses fewer problems for the orchestra and is more effectively rendered.
The best recording and playing on the disc is Jephta, Rhapsodic Poem (Symphony No. 5). The orchestra in this 1965 stereo master is an audible improvement, although this performance has been surpassed by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony on Naxos, and also is available on CPO with the Berlin Radio Symphony conducted by Alun Francis.
A weakness of the project is that the slashing of the orchestra’s player roster resulted in sound that is never lush and often shrill. The label obviously tolerated some scrappy string playing and other instances of weak ensemble. The orchestra’s quality improved in the ’60s under both Whitney and his successor, Jorge Mester. Another general problem with the series: the recording venues (such as Columbian Auditorium and the Brown Theater) are often tight and airless. All of these deficiencies are present to greater or lesser degree on this release. In short, this CD is valuable as an archive item, less useful for general listening, and hence is recommended mainly to power collectors and specialists.
