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Title: Too tense, ragged and raw
Review: The problem with this "Traviata" is not that it is "too fast"--Maazel's recording of the mid-60s and Carlos Kleiber's of the late-70s were just as fast or faster--but simply that neither Albanese nor the NBC Symphony has the technique to negotiate these passages flawlessly. Thus, we have a Violetta who huffs and puffs through a PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE tempo for "Sempre libera" (Moffo, Olivero, Sutherland and Cotrubas had no such problems in their recordings of the aria, at similar speeds), and an orchestra that sounds rough and steely at every turn, even in the lyrical passages.This, along with the "Fidelio," the 1941 studio recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, the Nutcracker and Carmen Suites, the Schubert 8th and anything by Shostakovich or Sibelius, are the NBC recordings one should avoid. Toscanini made many beautiful recordings--some of them are still unsurpassed after more than a half-century--but this isn't one of them and never will be.
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