Hard-bitten??? This performance is actually a good half minute longer than the earlier (1946) commercially recorded version and Toscanini personally wanted this version put on record - a very rare invitation from the "old man" notorious for hating almost all of his own performances. Toscanini is still - in my mind - the greatest interpreter of this work - as well as of all the Beethoven symphonies. I only wish he had performed more Schumann (alas, only the 2nd and 3rd Symphonies)
This is the one I learned it on, fifty years ago. It is hard to go from a fast to a slower performance; so, although I revere Furtwaengler, I am restless listening to his more profound performance.
