As with Falstaff Toscanini is notable for performing what is there, insisting that detail, often overlooked, should be observed. Maintenance of a basic pulse within which there could be necessary ritardandos and accelerandos was the basis of Toscanini's approach. All interpretative points were at the service of what was to this conductor a deep spiritual experience, by turns incandescent and beseeching all adding up to a great spiritual and emotional experience, again helped here by being taken from a live occasion. Examples of Toscanini's authority and belief abound – the terrifying intensity of the Dies irae, the turmoil of "Confutatis", the expressive cellos introducing the Offertorio, the lightness of the strings at "Plent sunt coeli" in the Sanctus, the ethereal texture throughout the Lux aeterna, the exactness and raising of tension in the Libera me fugue. Nowhere in this performance, as in so many recent ones, does one question a tempo or indeed find anything that calls attention to the conductor rather than to Verdi. In that respect it matches and often surpasses those conducted by Serafin (EMI – reviewed on page 2074), Fricsay (DG) and Giulini (EMI), now all on CD.
