Wagner MET Box

[wagnerfan]

I just received this summary from a friend who is very informative
regarding Wagner recordings and reissues -
I just got the new Met boxset of historic Wagner recordings. Overall I
am very impressed with the remasterings, since it is evident that a
lot of care has gone into the sound. The biggest improvements over
existing circulating issues can be found in the 1950s broadcasts of
Rheingold, Hollander, Meistersinger and Tannhauser. Even those that
have been on Sirius such as the Meistersinger are better here, with
far quieter surfaces and bright clear sound. The earlier performances
don't show quite such an improvement, the '36 Gotterdammerung and '43
Lohengrin are comparable to the Naxos issues that were done by Ward
Marston. I couldn't detect an improvement, though they are certainly
not inferior either. The '37 Siegfried and '40 Walkure have quieter
surfaces than other editions, but there has been some loss of
brightness as a result. The '38 Tristan I think is a noticeably better
copy, with quiet surfaces and good detail in the sound. My copy came
from Amazon UK for �36, which is not bad at all for 27 discs. The
quality of the '51 Rheingold made me wish for the rest of that ring in
such good sound. There is a very nice booklet and lots of good
production photos that I had not seen before. My only gripe is that
the cardboard sleeves holding the discs are very tight, and I found it
hard to get the CDs out!
Wagner fan