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Toscanini conducts Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony Op 58
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Manfred Symphony, Op. 58 (1885) • [0:00] • I. Lento lugubre • [14:32] • II. Vivace con spirito • [23:26] • III. Andante con moto • [33:53] • IV. Allegro con fuoco • The great Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini leads the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a 1948 performance of the Manfred Symphony by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). This programmatic work is based on the dramatic poem Manfred by Lord Byron, which also inspired music by Schumann and Reinecke. It deals with title Faustian hero's tormented wanderings in the Alps following the death of his beloved Astarte. Tchaikovsky's symphony dramatizes four episodes from the poem in monumental fashion. Critical opinion of the symphony has always been divided, especially over the subject of its supposedly flawed finale. Some commentators, like Leonard Bernstein, believed that the symphony is entirely without merit, while others, like César Cui and Arturo Toscanini, considered it one of the composer's greatest creations. Despite his high praise for this symphony, Toscanini made a number of cuts in his performances. • What follows is the programme of the symphony: • Movement 1: Manfred wanders in the Alps. Weary of the fatal question of existence, tormented by hopeless longings and the memory of past crimes, he suffers cruel spiritual pangs. He has plunged into occult sciences and commands the mighty powers of darkness, but neither they nor anything in this world can give him the forgetfulness to which alone he vainly aspires. The memory of the lost Astarte, once passionately loved, gnaws his heart and there is neither limit nor end to Manfred's despair. • Movement 2: The Alpine fairy appears before Manfred in the rainbow from the spray of a waterfall. • Movement 3: A picture of the bare, simple, free life of the mountain folk. • Movement 4: The subterannean palace of Arimanes. Infernal orgy. Appearance of Manfred in the middle of the bacchanal. Evocation and appearance of the shade of Astarte. He is pardoned. Death of Manfred.
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