greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (06/14/85)
Tower Records has lately been offering a box with the entire Solti "Ring" for $149.95. Considering that when the LP's were first released as a boxed set (1967) it went for $100, this isn't bad. There are now four complete "Ring" recordings on CD, the Janowski, Karajan, Boehm and Solti - of which only the Janowski was originally a digital recording. Although there are aspects of the casting, conducting and engineering that I'm not thrilled with on the Solti set, I find it the only satisfactory recording of the entire cycle in "modern" sound. If sound were of no consideration, my first choice would be the live Furtwaengler set from La Scala in 1950 which came out (with the pitch raised to fit onto fewer discs) in a cheapo Everest box and, more recently (with original pitch restored) on the Italian Fonit-Cetra label. Although some members of the cast are the same, this is NOT the Furtwaengler set that is available on Seraphim and EMI, which also came from Italy but was from a set of RAI broadcasts. One major difference is that the La Scala performances had Kirsten Flagstad as Brunnhilde, whereas the RAI performances had Martha Moedl. As the Solti set on CD, there is the effect of "drying up" of ambience compared to the LP's. Whether this is actually the removal of a slight layer of distortion that was on the analogue pressings, I honestly can't say. I know that there will be some who claim it's the evils of digital mastering, but the effect is, in any case, subtle. There are, on the other hand, substantial gains in the dynamic range and the clarity and impact of heavily scored passages. Some may complain of a slight edge on Nilsson's voice as having been contributed by the digital process, to which I'd respond that I heard this as a characteristic of her voice in the house on numerous occasions and found that the analogue pressings tended to mute the brilliance of her sound. These CD's still don't capture the way her voice blossomed out voluminously in the top register, but I would think this to be a restriction of the master tapes. It's amazing how little tape hiss is to be heard on these recordings. All of them were pre-Dolby masters. Also amazing is the general sense of weight and clarity of bass response of the 1958 "Das Rheingold" - it puts to shame a number of recordings made within the last year. The playing of the Vienna Philharmonic is phenomenal throughout. There are times when I prefer details of Karajan's interpretation with his equally extroardinary Berlin Philharmonic, but I find the singing cast of his set significantly inferior. The Janowski cast is yet several notches below the Karajan, although the Dresden orchestra also plays marvelously. The Boehm set is derived from live Bayreuth performances and is remarkably better sonically than the original Philips LP's. For my tastes, Boehm is unable to convey the weight, power and majesty of the music as well as either Solti or Karajan and his cast (except for using the same Brunnhilde, Siegfried and Siegmund as Solti) is generally inferior vocally. Since there don't seem to be any other "Ring" recording projects imminent, it seems that the Solti would be a good bet. Even a new one will have to go far to better it. Now, DGG, that you've put the full analogue-mastered Karajan "Ring" onto CD, can we please have the digitally-mastered "Tristan und Isolde" conducted by Carlos Kleiber? - Greg Paley