The best Solti-Wagner-Decca-Culshaw works?
Sorach Chanthongkaew
Solti-Wagner-Decca-Culshaw works? Was it this combination for all of them?
regards,
Mitchell Kaufman
> Now that Decca have the new remasters out; which do you feel are the best
> Solti-Wagner-Decca-Culshaw works? Was it this combination for all of them?
The Ring, no contest.
Of course, the only complete Solti Wagner operas that were produced by Culshaw
were the Ring and Tristan, and the Tristan is terrible (great sound and
production though, if you don't mind your voices a bit distant).
All the rest of Solti's complete Wagner recordings for Decca post-dated
Culshaw's stint there (and the Ring is *still* best, producer notwithstanding),
though there were excerpted scenes recorded earlier with Flagstad and then
Nilsson.
MK
Mitchell Kaufman
> though there were excerpted scenes recorded earlier with Flagstad and then
> Nilsson.
The Nilsson (Tristan excerpts) were conducted by Knappertsbusch, BTW, not Solti.
MK
Richard Loeb
recordings ever made. You can't have a great Gotterdammerung without a great
cast and in this respect the Solti Gotterdammerung wins over the competition
by a landslide. The love, care and attention that went into that recording
is evident throughout and palpable when you see the wonderful documentary
about its creation - the Golden Ring. Those days are I am afraid over.
"Sorach Chanthongkaew" <sor...@cscoms.com> wrote in message
news:au1385$2kt8$1...@news.cscoms.com...
Richard Bernas
> Solti-Wagner-Decca-Culshaw works? Was it this combination for all of them?
>
> regards,
Culshaw left Decca by the time Solti recorded Tannhauser and Parsifal,
but they are both quite succesful, IMO. The Tannhauser is on balance
the best recording of the score yet made. And I think the Parsifal is
underestimated; Solti may not lead an incredibly "spiritual" account
but he makes the transition from rituals of Act I to the sensuality of
Act II better than most, and the cast, as well as being vocally very
confident, is made up almost entirely of native German speakers. That
makes a difference.
Though the Siegfried recording has many great moments, Hotter's vocal
age and Stolze's vocal indeterminacy don't wear well for me. I do find
that everyone is on maximum form for the Gotterdammerung. Windgassen
surpasses himself, especially in Act II and both Nilsson and Frick
have never been bettered.
Grimorio
but what I wonder about is the packaging in the latest reissue. How did the
manage to put so many CDs in such a small box? Are they using cardboard
envelopes? I hope not, since usually the material is too hard and it tends
to scratch the CDs when you take them out or put them back into the
envelope.
My wife is considering this as a Holiday present and we would like to know
how the CDs are packaged. I am very picky with this sort of thing.
Happy Holidays and thank you
Jorge
Mitchell Kaufman
> I bought the Solti ring some years ago, not recently, but if DECCA
> hasn't changed it, the packaging is like this:
> The CDs are in *paper* envelopes. I haven't noticed that they tend
> to damage the CD when taking out or putting in. Not a packaging for
> eternity otoh.
The packaging is one of the few things I actually like about it. These thin
paper envelopes tend to be less rough on the discs than some of the stiffer
cardboard variety I've seen. There is also a sturdy outer box, and the
individual operas are housed in very attractive thick cardboard boxes which
feature the beautiful original cover art.
The problem is really the remastering, which apparently isn't really a
remastering, but rather a Cedar de-hissing of the previously-used digital tapes
that date as far back as the digitally-mastered LP reissue from over 20 years
ago.
The cycle needs a real remastering from the analog masters using the latest
technology. Dare I ask for SACDs?
MK
Alan P Dawes
Grimorio <gabe...@cox.net> wrote:
> I have heard many good things about this recording (some bad things
> too); but what I wonder about is the packaging in the latest reissue.
> How did the manage to put so many CDs in such a small box? Are they
> using cardboard envelopes?
Unless they have changed since the latest remastering was released, the
anser is no, 'soft' paper envelopes which are large enough to allow easy
insertion and withdrawal (unlike the hard 'tight' card envelopes used for
eg the DECCA Liszt Jorge Bolet set). Within the large box there are 4
separate boxes one for each opera including a booklet for each.
Alan
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Peter
> The problem is really the remastering, which apparently isn't really a
> remastering, but rather a Cedar de-hissing of the previously-used digital tapes
> that date as far back as the digitally-mastered LP reissue from over 20 years
> ago.
Why would Decca "digitally" remaster LP discs?
horizon
"Peter" <p_ul...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:3E056739...@ix.netcom.com...
I think the poster is implying that the master tapes used were originally
from a digital LP reissue. I don't think he's correct, however, in this
regard. The Ring operas were not among the first CDs that Decca release in
'83. They took a couple of years to make it out, and I'm almost sure that
the remastering for the 1st CD issue was done specifically for CD. That was
certainly what we were led to believe over at PolyGram Classics.
Matt C
Mitchell Kaufman
> I think the poster is implying that the master tapes used were originally
> from a digital LP reissue.
Yes. A lot of people have forgotten about these, but they did exist prior to the
appearance of CD and even after.
> I don't think he's correct, however, in this
> regard. The Ring operas were not among the first CDs that Decca release in
> '83. They took a couple of years to make it out, and I'm almost sure that
> the remastering for the 1st CD issue was done specifically for CD. That was
> certainly what we were led to believe over at PolyGram Classics.
Perhaps, but I think everyone was also led to believe that the latest issue was
in fact a remastering (which I define as "using the analog tapes"), when it was
merely a de-hissing of the existing digital tapes, so I'd be skeptical of any
claims to that effect.
I also can't imagine why Decca would've made a *second* digital transfer of the
Ring within a two- or three-year period, since the original process was
supposedly so laborious (flaking oxide and so on, and of course the sheer length
of the work). You'll recall there *was* a digitally-mastered LP issue of the
Solti Ring (which, despite the fact that it sounded like hell, was given John
Culshaw's seal of approval in the pages of High Fidelity).
Anyway, I wasn't there, so I don't know. In either case, the digital master used
for the latest issue would be at least *close* to 20 years old (that is,
deriving from the tapes prepared for the original CD issue), since even Decca
has never explicitly made the claim that it was a full remastering. The
"producer's note" in the current issue is more revealing for what it *doesn't*
say than what it does.
MK
Mitchell Kaufman
Solti Ring from the shelves. It contains two copyright dates:
"p" 1981
"c" 1984
The current set, using Rheingold as an example, has the following designations:
"p" 1959
"c" 1997
The first of these is obviously the date of the original LP issue, the second
the date of the most recent CD issue. (The other operas follow suit.)
Please note the following post, which elucidates the meaning of the "p" and "c"
copyright notations on sound recordings as I understand them:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?U27225BD2
The two dates listed for the old CDs would jibe with my recollection: 1981 for
the original digital remastering, and 1984 for the original CD issue.
Of course if Matt was there and knows otherwise, I defer.
MK
Mitchell Kaufman
dredged up the following posting from a group called "net.music.classical" from
1985 (!):
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G3C421BD2
It seems there was a sonic "glitch" common to the digitally-mastered LPs and the
original CDs. While one assumes that such a flaw could exist in the analog
master, one would think that if the CD issue derived from a *second* digital
transfer, Decca would've endeavored to fix the problem.
Again, the poster states that there was only one digital remastering of the
Solti Ring, which is also my belief.
MK
horizon
"Mitchell Kaufman" <forg...@iaint.disclosinit> wrote in message
news:zcjN9.63139$_S2....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
Again, I'm just remembering what Decca was telling the marketing and
publicity people in New York. What was going on in London is another matter
entirely. Curious.
Matt
mpresley
Professional digital tape recorders appeared several years before the CD
format. Record companies, in order to sell some new old product,
transferred original analog tapes to the PCM format, and then cut LP's
using these "new" master tapes.
Sometimes the difference was noticeable, sometimes not so noticeable.
Sometimes these reissues were better due not so much to the digital
processing than to the actual lacquer processing. That is, for their new
releases some labels used premium Teldec or JVC vinyl with DMM (direct
metal mastering) or half speed mastering. Sometimes, though, they were not
as good.
Interestingly enough, one "audiophile" label (memory does not serve me
today) released an analog "superdisc" of at least some of the Solti Ring.
I think I saw Rhinegold in one of my catalogs once.
michael--Linux RU# 224791
David7Gable
>age and Stolze's vocal indeterminacy don't wear well for me. I do find
>that everyone is on maximum form for the Gotterdammerung. Windgassen
>surpasses himself, especially in Act II and both Nilsson and Frick
>have never been bettered.
Personally, I find Solti's best contribution to be the Siegfried. His
Goetterdaemerung I find only intermittenly successful. He's much better at
maintaining momemtum across transition after transition in Siegfried than in
G-D, and there is a good deal of very distinctive shaping in the Siegfried as
well. For just one small example, listen to the prelude to the first act,
where each of the motives is very distinctively and individually shaped, and
the whole is very brilliantly pulled off rhythmically: it's very taut. As for
Hotter, his vocal estate doesn't bother me in Siegfried although in the
Walkuere even I find him a trial at times.
-david gable
David7Gable
Siegfried is the only installment in the Solti Ring I couldn't live without,
and I bought the much touted (at least by the manufacturer) second remastering
when it came out, which enabled me to make a back to back comparison with the
first. I kept the first and sold the second.
-david gable
Stephen W. Worth
<sor...@cscoms.com> wrote:
> Now that Decca have the new remasters out; which do you feel are the best
> Solti-Wagner-Decca-Culshaw works? Was it this combination for all of them?
Gotterdammerung is the best of the Solti Wagner operas hands down.
See ya
Steve
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"Stephen W. Worth" <ne...@vintageip.com> wrote in message
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