This disc gathers together all of Toscanini’s earliest studio recordings with the ensemble that was created for him, the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The repertoire is reminiscent of his first Victor recordings with the New York Philharmonic some years earlier, perhaps in an attempt to replicate their success. Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 are fiery and dashing yet generously lyrical and flexible, qualities that were increasingly sapped out of Toscanini’s subsequent commercial recordings with the NBC. Rossini’s overture to William Tell is given an unusually lean and coherent interpretation. These recordings formed an auspicious start to a collaboration that was to last through to Toscanini’s final concert with the NBC orchestra on 4th April, 1954.