Renato Vinicius wrote:

>I bought the recording with Toscanini and the NBC Orq.(1939) and also,
>in an other CD symph.  nr 3 and 5.  I bought them believing I would like
>a lot, once so many friends and listeners praised them.  Surprisingly -
>for me - I didn't like them.

Maybe you should try the 1953 Ninth and the other Beethoven symphonies
rerecorded about that time.

>Had Toscanini any relationship with nazists or facists?

He ran for political office on the Fascist party in the early twenties when
he may be excused for not having known better.  He later broke completely
from Fascism or Nazism, nearly being lynched for refusing to play the
Fascist hymn, "Giovinezza" (sp?) in Milan and refusing to conduct at
Bayreuth under the Nazis.

Walter Meyer