greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (08/06/85)
My impressions of some more CD's I've listened to: Brahms: Symphony No. 4 (Vienna Philharmonic/Carlos Kleiber) DGG Carlos Kleiber fulfills the stereotype of the "mad genius" performer to a degree that's almost scary - tempermental to a degree that could be called neurotic, likely to walk out or cancel at the drop of a dime, nervous and agitated when given lots of rehearsal time but, on the other hand, relaxed and jovial when he decides to take over a performance at the last moment. When he actually shows up and stays through the performance (or recording) the results are always remarkable. As with his complete "Tristan" recording, he is sensitive to and illuminates the most subtle inflections of color and tempo like nobody else I've heard. The symphony is masterfully shaped, yet the individual players and sections of the Vienna Philharmonic appear to play with the freedom of a chamber group. I find an eerie number of parallels between Kleiber's operation (not only in this context) and Toscanini - both create a firm yet buoyant context in which there is plasticity and freedom for instrumentalists to express themselves, but always within a cohesive structure. The parallel extends also to the type of recorded sound both seem to favor, very clear and sharply defined but with little "plush" or warmth so that every inner voice is audible but there is almost no sense of space or ambience. As such, I found the sound preferable to that on many other DGG CD's, particularly those involving Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. Even if the sound were significantly worse, I'd consider this, on the basis of performance alone, a clear first choice for this symphony on CD. Puccini: Tosca (Callas/DiStefano/Gobbi/Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan/Victor de Sabata, cond.) EMI/ANGEL I normally don't care much for Puccini and this opera in particular, but this performance is such an exciting one that I remained riveted through the entire thing. The sound is good 1953 mono with improved clarity of the voices and orchestral textures over my earlier EMI mono copy, and is a quantum leap in quality over the later EMI "enhanced for stereo" muck that appeared on LP in the late 70's. As early as 1953 appeared the onset of rawness and courseness that were later to be DiStefano's downfall, and the stridency and unsteadiness in Callas' top range that later were to make her unlistenable (for me at least). Nonetheless, the beauty and variety of Callas' voice in its middle and lower register combined with her superb musicianship and dramatic inflection of the text set a standard that no other soprano (including Callas herself in a 1965 stereo "remake" of this recording) has been able to approach. Similar gifts are displayed by the baritone Gobbi in addition to a brilliant ringing timbre at this point in his career. It is, however, De Sabata's extraordinary control and dramatic sense that make this recording much more than the some of its already considerable parts. If you have any interest in opera and place musical value above sonic glories, don't pass this one up. R. Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie (Berlin Philharmonic/Herbert von Karajan) DGG I consider this a prime example of the deterioration of Richard Strauss' creative abilities when he should still have been (and was generally reputed to be) at the prime of his career. Whereas earlier works (Don Juan, Don Quixote, some of Ein Heldenleben) display a remarkable wealth of original inspiration revealed through a masterful skill in managing multi-layered orchestral textures, I find that later works, such as this one, display only the orchestral skill with none of the original creative impulse. In other words, I hear this as a collection of luxuriantly beautiful sonorities that express nothing. This also makes a bad case for CD - the individual instruments are heard in a vacuum and their timbres are reproduced with a deadness and dullness that made me claustrophobic listening to it. In general, I continue to find the need to have both CD and LP playing capacities in my system as I perceive them as having different strengths and weakenesses so that one doesn't replace the other. For reproduction of voices, particularly of the powerful operatic variety, I find CD (if the master was well engineered) tops. There is a clarity and dynamic freedom that allows voices to soar, particularly on top, in a way that severely tests turntable/arm/cartridge/LP setups of anywhere near a comparable price range (I'm using a Magnavox 3040 CD player). On the other hand, I have yet to hear a CD that can seriously compare with the better LP's in my collection (mid 70's EMI, particularly Previn/London Symphony, late 50's RCA Chicago and Boston Symphony, late 50's/early 60's Mercury Minneapolis Symphony and London Symphony and late 50's-early 70's London recordings of the London Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and, especially Vienna Philharmonic) for capturing the weight, spaciousness and depth as well as detail of a full symphonic orchestra in large scale works. On pop recordings (I don't have any rock in my collection so can't venture an opinion) I find little audible difference between good LP and good CD, which leads me to prefer the convenience of CD. - Greg Paley