Ottorino Respighi - Pines Of Rome (NBC Symphony / Toscanini - 1952 Telecast) 

Toscanini was 85 years old here and on his feet, conducting without a score. How badass is that?

My flute teacher, Paul Renzi, was in this orchestra!

Via Appia has perhaps the greatest paced crescendo I've ever heard. Just when you think it's reached a maximum level there's another peak. And to be able to watch him conduct this piece which he has such a connection to is such a gift. Many thanks for posting.

My brother played the 1955 album recorded by the same orchestra, I was 5 in 1961... What memories, brings me to tears, he is 77 now, I am 10 years younger. All my musical tastes were developed by me listening to his music😅

A real treasure of Western Civilization, in so many ways. Thanks so much for uploading.

I was 10 when I saw this performance live on our newly installed 17” RCA tv. It captivated me then and still does today.

Toscanini, one of the very greatest, no doubt about that. A surprising excellent recording sound, btw.

0:16 Borghese 2:49 Catacombs 9:31 Janiculum 15:40 Appian

지휘하는 모든 동작에서 단 하나의 불필요함도 없이 정확하게 오케스트라를 인도해내는 거장의 솜씨! 몸짓만으로로 소리를 바로 보여주는 거 같음. 지금봐도 여전히 대단하다. 그명성이 아직도 회자되고 로마의 소나무 명연으로 손꼽히는게 이래서지. 너무도 찬란하고 숨막히게 긴장감이 터지는 연주다.

While I am sitting on the balcony in the setting sun, I let the recording run. At the end of the third movement (I pini del Gianicolo), when the birds - trained hard by Maestro Toscanini - began to intone, answered the blackbird, which has erected its palazzo in the tree opposite. The composer and the conductor would certainly have liked this kind of dialogue between the birds of Rome and their Cologne colleagues.

Straordinario, immenso Toscanini. Mai.vista una così perfetta sincronia tra gesto direttoriale ed esecuzione orchestrale. Ritengo Toscanini il più grande direttore del Novecento.

Amazing the way Toscanini carefully controls the dynamic nuances of the music with his left hand.

Thank you for posting this, in such shockingly-excellent sound given the source and age. Brilliant composer, conductor, perfect handling. What a gift to live in an era where something like this can be rescued from obscurity and shared with the world. Bravo - !

Impensabile oggi riascoltare in diretta una esecuzione così perfetta da qualsiasi Orchestra di livello mondiale diretta dal genio DIRETTORIALE quale quello del l'immenso Maestro TOSCANINI!!!!!!!!!! GRAZIE a chi ci ha lasciato una testimonianza irripetibile della genialità compositiva RESPIGHIANA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indescribable beauty Indescribable feeling Indescribable comfort and something indescribable This footage is a treasure This performance is unrivaled by any other performances Toscanini holds an unchallenged position as an interpreter of Respighi I deeply love the pines of the Via Appia

TREMENDOUS performance of a TREMENDOUS piece!

Fantastisch!

What a treasure this is

It is worth listening to this masterpiece. This masterpiece is a inspirational poem

Niente da fare: Respighi si deve suonare così!

Simply stunning. A perfect few moments in time.

These old RCA recordings of Toscanini are great!

It seems I am in a Via Appia and I watching the glorious Roman Imperial Army marching majestically

Simply outstanding!

wow many thanks and such excellent quality. deeply appreciated

By the way, the piano part is played by Earl Wild!

I have owned Toscanini's recording of the Pines and Fountains since I was a kid and I"m pushing 80 now, hard. Not much to say about this that hasn't already been said many, many times. I will observe, though, that Toscanini, who professed to do what the score says -- no more, no less -- marches the army down the Appian Way at about 80 to the quarter note. Respighi asks for 66. Toscanini is 21% faster than the composer requested. It's exciting as hell, no question. But listen to Bernstein's 1970 performance with the NY Philharmonic. He's right at 66 and it's also exciting as hell -- the pulse gets more and more intense without ever wavering. I know this score pretty well and in my opinion, Bernstein is closer to the composer's intention, at least in the last mvt of the Pines. Toscanini had a famous dispute with Maurice Ravel. He conducted the first US performance of the Bolero quite a bit faster than Ravel's marked tempo. Ravel was in the audience and expressed his objection to the conductor afterwards. Toscanini said "it was the only way to save the piece". Ravel said "well, then maybe you shouldn't conduct it". Ravel grew up in the Basque region of France and knew this dance. He was also one of the rarest musical geniuses the human race has produced. I've listened to Ravel's own performance as well as Toscanini's. You can guess which one I prefer.

Wonderful!

One of the reasons why this is such an emotional performance was Respighi's key role in getting Toscanini and his family out of Italy before the fascists could come down on them. So, in a way, this performance and many others would not have happened without Respighi.

He is 85. He is on his feet the whole concert. There is no score and yet he controls the exact sound and texture of every single note. And thank goodness none of today's mezzoforte. Toscanini's sounds are real sounds that have life. something happens with his sound. A world of feeling and thought open up. It is alive. Today everything is the death of boring mezzoforte. Did you see how the cellists are working. You won't see that today.

Good stuff. We need more of his videos.

So great to hear this. Thank you.

It's an old video, but it's a great performance that doesn't make you feel old at all.

Wow...

FANTASTIC!!!!! 👍

Great performance

Magnifico !

No.1 Rome

Bravissimo

Ze mirari ikusgarria ! Respighi filmen doinueri dena eman zizkion.

The Toscanini telecasts began in 1948. This was the final piece on the last telecast.

In high school I nearly defected to our district rival because they were playing the Pines. My father would have none of it tho, he knew as a low brass player it would be a glorious gift I would get later in life, what fun it is to play...

Excuse me if I sound too blunt, but those were some studly ass trumpets in the final minutes.

Alright I never post .... .how about how maestro O.rispigihi manhandle this piece with no score in front of him ,all by memory in perfect timing.... O.g. classic rock star stuff. God bless the whole orchestra et al

The Catacombs is one of the all time great pieces. Ir should be played fast, as Toscanini is playing it.

Mannaggia! The sound is incredible, not like on the old Victrola reissues. An acquired taste? Like passion?

So crazy 80 years ago these fast incredibly fast tempi. Feels like mechanized computers yet these composers and conductors were born before our ghastly clockwork perfection became common .Listen to this performance. I'm going to search for a 1930's performance . Toscanini's precision and ruthless time beating . One wouldn't think people born in the romantic era would be so driven and perfunctoy .Rach and Hofmann,Rubinstein's directness were new unlike Paderewsky and DePachmann and the old sentimental school but listen to the mechanical precision in the beginning . Even the pastoral 5th minute is not what one expects . Must find some earlier performances. Is his Beeth 6th Symphony this metronomic even though the phrasing is as clear and unfussy .

凄い演奏技術

Great sound quality and great performance! Can you upload the Beethoven fifth video of the same concert?

Interesting how the cameras never leave Toscanini - no shots of the individual orchestra members (all of whom seem to be men, by the way - I guess classical music was still a man's world back in the 50s)

17:54 don’t forget to cue trumpets

2:25 excerpt 2

Who’s the clarinetist?

0:54 interesting how the trumpets flutter tongue it. And how times have changed where we multiple tongue it

mi pare che questa versione sia di gran lunga superiore alle altre. qui i pini di roma sono proprio una bella musica, in altre interpretazione sembrano solo un'arietta

A great performance! While Toscanini's face is undoubtedly quite expressive, more views of the orchestra "in action" might have been good, as well?

That sounds like stereo. Is this reprocessed mono?

This makes me want to go to Rome and I dislike Rome.

'' bloody timebeater' Wilhelm Furtwängle

Finale is way too fast, doesn't allow for the overwhelming majesty. Sounds almost panicked.

Fantastico!