11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Inferior to the "Toscanini Collection" RCA CD Version!, September 16, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Der Ring Des Nibelungen: The 1941 Legendary Recordings From the Ring Cycle with Lauritz Melchoir & Helen Traubel (Audio CD)
Before purchasing ANY of the Grammophono CDs of Toscanini recordings, be sure to check to see if there is an AUTHORIZED and official RCA edition in the voluminous BMG "Toscanini Collection". That edition was made from 15 ips tapes, done under "purist" conditions and in genuine single-channel monaural sound, from the original masters on disk or tape. These tapes were produced for the Toscanini family, and were collected in the 1980s and 90s for the production of the CD series, since many of the old disk masters and ancient tapes were in disarray or had been lost / destroyed.
Grammophono here, as usual, clumsily reprocesses perfectly fine and clear aircheck acetates made in Studio 8-H by RCA engineers in exceptionally clear and clean sound, in the excerpts from Walkuere and Goetterdaemmerung broadcast in 1941. They have sounded spectacularly good since the earliest commercial issues in the sixties on RCA Victor Red Seal LPs; they sound magnificent -- and much better than this present release -- on the "official" BMG disks, volumes 52 and 53 in the Toscanini Collection.
If you must have the great broadcast of "Dich Teure Halle" by Traubel (admittedly a magnificent one, worthy of any other great Wagnerian soprano, and richly and expressively done) check for alternative, purist monaural transfers in preference to this release; otherwise, it is conveniently included here with the wonderful readings described above.
Now, if one could only convince Grammophono to eschew fake stereo and Cedar processing...
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