C0858. ARTURO TOSCANINI Cond. NBC S.O. & Westminster Chorale: Te Deum; w.Zinka Milanov, Bruna Castagna, Jussi Björling & Nicola Moscona: MANZONI REQUIEM (both Verdi). 2-Music & Arts 4240, Live Performance, 23 Nov., 1940, Carnegie Hall. Transfers by Graham Newton. Specially priced. Final copy! - 017685424021

CRITIC REVIEW:

“Transferred from what collectors like to call "inside" sources, Music and Arts' previous edition of Toscanini's November 23, 1940 Verdi Requiem has long been the best sounding CD release of these justly famous performances. Music and Arts now reissues this set in a new transfer by Graham Newton. In essence, Newton removes all the clicks and pops inherent in the original lacquer discs. The results make it easier to concentrate during the ravishingly shaded and sustained soft passages….In his superb booklet notes, Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs discusses the performance's salient virtues….Jussi Björling's full yet conversational, effortless Ingemisco (superior to his singing 20 years later in Fritz Reiner's commercial recording) or Zinka Milanov proclaim the Libera me's opening, recitative-like phrases with such presence and authority….No Verdi lover or Toscanini buff should go through life without hearing this very special Requiem.”

- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com