Beethoven's Eroica - Toscanini 1939, Klemperer 1955

Both are, of course, extremely famous recordings. I have listened to the Toscanini on the excellent and widely praised transfer of the entire 1939 cycle on Music & Arts - another advantage of this set, incidentally, being the highly informative notes by Christopher Dyment.
The fame of the 1939 recording is fully justified, and not everything lives up to its reputation, but to me it has features which differ somewhat from those sometimes carelessly attributed to Toscanini.
The concept of a 'heroic' symphony, and in this case the name is applied by Beethoven, obviously implies someone considerably away from the average. If we take another famous interpreter of the symphony, Klemperer, the power of his interpretation lies in the remorseless and inevitable character of the music - the 'granite will' to use a hackneyed but appropriate phrase. This is achieved by a minimum of tempo changes and Klemperer's 'vertically equal' tone - that is avoidance of domination by the top line with his characteristic strong emphasis to the bass and woodwind. The result is somewhere between a force of nature and a human being. All Klemperer's readings, with their integration of long line, including careful placing and grading of dynamics throughout the work, have the feeling of inevitability - that once the first notes have sounded the rest follows inevitably.
Toscanini's hero is more human. The tempo fluctuations, contrary to Toscanini's reputation, are much greater in the first movement than Klemperer's - not only in the latter's famous 1955 recording but in any of his other recorded performances. In the quieter passages Toscanini's hero either pauses for breath or thought - the momentum of the music slowed by a deceleration in tempo. This makes the ensuing onslaught the more striking. Toscanini's hero rather than having a 'granite will' has a more human 'indomitable will' - that is, whatever the pauses, in which relaxation occurse in a way it does not in Klemperer, the struggle is resumed. This means the outburst at the centre of the funeral march has a more human character, for a person who was not without a quieter or softer side, than Klemperer's.
Within the framework that Beethoven's hero is clearly a public person, Toscanini's funeral march has slightly more the element of mourning by those who knew the exceptional figure personally whereas Klemperer's is a great formal funeral.
These are, of course, distinctions within the very highest grade of musical interpretation. But the slightly more subjective character of the Toscanini interpretation is not in line with some stereotyped 'conventional wisdoms' regarding him.
Again it should be noted that there is not some 'spirit' separate from the notes as performed. The different impact is traceable to entirely comprehensible differences in the performance.