September, 1961

The GRAMOPHONE

Advert 1

'There are critics who regard the originals of the Toscanini recordings as a sort of holy writ which cannot be altered in any way.

an I am sure this release will send such people into absolute frenzy, but I urge others not to join them.'

Robert C, Marsh-High Fidelity

British record enthusiasts can by now hardly fail to be aware of RCA Victor's efforts to apply 'electronic re-processing' to Toscanini recordings. The avowed aims of Jack Arthur Somer -the man primarily responsible for this undertaking-were to make possible greater enjoyment of the music on these records by using the technioal resources at his disposal to introduce something of the spaciousness, reverberation and clarity typical of good stereo recording without ever breaking faith with the composer or Toscanini's interpretation. Mr. Somer himself has written '. . . the essential content is the music the composers wrote and the performance Arturo Toscanini gave i t . In i ts re-processing I have had the good fortune to have the advice and counsel of Richard B. Gardner, the RCA Victor engineer who spent many years as the Maestro's personal engineer . . . and of the conductor's son, Walter Toscanini. I t is hoped that through our work the Maestro will l ive on, not just in the memory but in the active hearing of his music'. Now British music lovers can test for themselves the results of these labours, so painstak.ingly and responsibly undertaken .

Mussorgsky PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION o SB-2121

Dvorak . SYMPHONY No.5 IN E MINOR- 'FROM THE NEW WORLD' o SB-2123

Respighi THE PINES OF ROME ; THE FOUf'l"TAINS OF ROME o SB.-2122

all by The NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by ARTURO TOSCANINI

RCA RECORDS product of THE DECCA RECORD COMPANY LTD DECCA HOUSE ALBERT EMBANKMENT LONDON SEl