My favorite recording of this opera -- and with Sherrill Milnes as Germont.Originally Posted by Hoffmann
The Windgassen recording looks good - what do you think?
DA,1953 studio Callas Traviata, this was originally recorded for Cetra label just before EMI contract signed by Callas. Pristine Audio remaster works thier amazing audio magic as usual, another prize in my Callas collection, don't even ask how much it costs
This Violetta has some serious bling......
So how is the quality of the Pristine CD-R. does it look like it will hold up/last?
And how much better is the sound?
Thanks
I have 5 Callas opera sets from Pristine Audio now, first order took 3.5 weeks but next order came in 2.5 weeks, all have ambient stereo feature. As long as you store CDR at room temps and don't have constant direct sunlight exposure they will last as long as we are alive to hear them, that is no problem.
The sound quality is a major step up from the best CD versions out there, even ones that have have been expertly remastered previously, and I do mean major step up in sound quality, makes me wonder how it is possible that Pristine can be so much better......I couldn't be more pleased (and amazed)
Callas have never sounded more vivid, nuanced with added vocal color and striking realism, but the big improvement is in lower mids and bass response. I can't believe how much musical detail was previously obscured in this area, actually benefits vocals of tenor and baritone/bass even more than Callas (Stephano and Gobbi)
These cost a bloody fortune but the results are the very best available, you will not be disappointed!
Wow, thanks for the great review. Thinking hard about the Krauss Ring now.I have 5 Callas opera sets from Pristine Audio now, first order took 3.5 weeks but next order came in 2.5 weeks, all have ambient stereo feature. As long as you store CDR at room temps and don't have constant direct sunlight exposure they will last as long as we are alive to hear them, that is no problem.
The sound quality is a major step up from the best CD versions out there, even ones that have have been expertly remastered previously, and I do mean major step up in sound quality, makes me wonder how it is possible that Pristine can be so much better......I couldn't be more pleased (and amazed)
Callas have never sounded more vivid,nuanced with added vocal color and striking realism, but the big improvement is in lower mids and bass response. I can't believe how much musical detail was previously obscured in this area, actually benefits vocals of tenor and baritone/bass even more than Callas (Stephano and Gobbi)
These cost a bloody fortune but the results are the very best available, you will not be disappointed!
Very tempting since you have arguably the best singers ever recorded for a Ring in their absolute best vocal years, very dynamic conductor in Krauss, and Pristine Audio has without any doubt best soundWow, thanks for the great review. Thinking hard about the Krauss Ring now.
Read this review if your dare, says your CD version of Krauss Ring is "left in the dust" by Pristine Audio for sound quality
http://www.musicweb-international.co...paco039-41.htm
Windgassen was a great phraser, and it shows very well in this recording. However, his instrument was not precisely exciting, and his top notes were always rather weak and veiled. Also, in long passages like Stolzing's in Meistersinger or trying to use mezza voce in Lohengrin, the legato was not precisely flawless.
All in all, a good one, especially Parsifal and, to a lesser extent, Tristan.
And La Fanciulla del West from La Monnaie with Deborah Voigt and last year's Aida from the Met with Roberto Alagna - both disappointing.
Natalie
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
The Merchant of Venice, V, i.
"The 1976 Bayreuth recording is the non plus ultra of Carlos Kleiber live performances." - J. Brown
Unless my ears are deceiving me, this is in stereo.
I don't mean to scare you guys but this could easily be the best Tristan and Isolde of all time account for sound quality and stuff, I've just begun.
The pair of lovers are supposedly miles ahead of the studio Kleiber cast and the conducting is at least marginally better.
If this record turns out as good as I think it will be this is an outrage that the record companies have been keeping this from us. This isn't even available on amazon!
This recording is so obscure enjoying it makes me feel like a member of some cabal designed to hoard the best recordings and keep it from the public.
Edit: This is it. The Holy Grail.
In my view, the orchestra's sound is indeed rich, and full of drama. Piercing and penetrating, but also diffused and morbid, and all in the right places. However, Ms. Ligendza's voice was hardly able to cope with Eva, so imagine with Isolde. Mr. Wenkoff did have the voice, but he was a stranger to legato singing, and his Tristan is little more than a constant declamation.
With another pair of singers, this could have been indeed a Tristan for the ages, to go with the ones from Furtwängler, Böhm, Reiner, Karajan, Jochum, Barenboim,...
This 1976 Kleiber recording I still have it in the vinyl LP by Legendary.
Endless melody indeed.
Granted, Wenkoff is far from my favorite Tristan and he seems to run out of gas at the end of Scene I of Act III, but the same could be said for Vinay (Karajan '52) and Windgassen (Bohm), the former mired in declamations. I find Wenkoff acceptable in the "easy" passages of Act I and Ii, whichis most of it, and much of Act III. I much prefer Ligendza to Margaret Price though, the former at the very least being above the water level of tolerableness albeit the latter is a very, very low bar to pass. What takes the cake for me is that this recording's combination of sound, orchestral playing, and conducting beats the nearest competition by miles. Although the Knappertsbusch's conducting is arguably better, hard as it is to tell from sloppy 1950 mono, it is also besotted by a poor ensemble. The margin of Kleiber's superiority in conducting in the 1976 live is, to my ears, wider than the margin of the studio Kleiber's superiority in sound. I was expecting craggy mono akin to the 1974 live Tristan or the 1976 Otello. Imagine my surprise when!!In my view, the orchestra's sound is indeed rich, and full of drama. Piercing and penetrating, but also diffused and morbid, and all in the right places. However, Ms. Ligendza's voice was hardly able to cope with Eva, so imagine with Isolde. Mr. Wenkoff did have the voice, but he was a stranger to legato singing, and his Tristan is little more than a constant declamation.
With another pair of singers, this could have been indeed a Tristan for the ages, to go with the ones from Furtwängler, Böhm, Reiner, Karajan, Jochum, Barenboim,...
This 1976 Kleiber recording I still have it in the vinyl LP by Legendary.
Even if this isn't the holy grail, it's still an extraordinary fact that this record is so obscure. Geoffrey Riggs didnt even review it in his Tristan overview. What makes its obscurity even weirder is that the 1974 live Kleiber is more widely circulated.
The hedonic treadmill just makes me incredibly enthused that this exists at all, even with all its flaw that many might deem fatal.
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