Victor de Sabata reached the height of his profession in a conducting career which lasted over 30 years, but he made far fewer records than his status merited. This was partly because he didn't particularly like the process, and partly because his career took shape in such a fashion that he was not regularly accessible to the recording companies.
In the spring of 1939 he was in Berlin, however, and made a number of recordings with the BPO for Polydor. These comprised the items listed above, plus Brahms's Fourth Symphony and Richard Strauss's Tod und Verklarung (DG, 2/89—nla). At this period immediately before the Second World War Furtwangler's orchestra was confined for political reasons to a fairly restricted repertoire and played mostly Austro-German fare. Yet such was the power and personality of Sabata on the rostrum that he completely transformed the BPO. It sounds just like an Italian orchestra (though a very superior one) in the Aida Prelude, and even the Tristan excerpts have a fervent, Latin warmth. In the Dances of Galanta he is very successful at capturing the Hungarian folk-song flavour of the piece, with its contrasts of slightly melancholy passion and unbuttoned exuberance. The Hungarian dance rhythms are inflected in a marvellously authentic-sounding fashion, and the orchestra gives a virtuoso performance in a very uninhibited, un-Germanic style.
Even such an exciting performance as this hardly prepares the listener for the final item. Sabata's recording of Roman Festivals is pretty rare in its original form, and has never appeared in the UK before. In Britain we have had some impressive performances of this Respighi piece, with Toscanini's 1949 version (RCA, 1/91) first in the field. But nothing quite like this. How Sabata managed to conjure such atmosphere, passion and power out of the staid pre-war BPO is beyond the imagination, and he makes the work seem infinitely greater than it is. Every bar tingles with life, and at the end climax piles on climax in an extraordinary fashion until it seems that the 1939 equipment will simply break under the assault.
All the recordings are, in fact, quite good for their period and Ward Marston's transfers are, as usual, excellent.'