greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (05/30/85)
Writers in "Absolute Sound" and other pubs have been (with good reason) praising the qualities of a number of the Mercury "Living Presence" recordings made with a 3-mike setup in the late 50's and early to mid 60's. Many of these were reissued on the Philips "Golden Imports", but with modifications to the sound which reduced the brilliance and remarkable balance of spatial representation and clarity of detail to be heard on the originals. The combined qualities of the exceptional sound of the master tapes and the often problematic surfaces of the originals (and the now outrageous prices they command from collector's shops) make them obvious candidates for transfer to CD. The first instance of this has already happened but "in disguise", so that a number of collectors who would be interested in the results of such transfer might not know about it. The recording is of Cherubini's opera "Medea" and has been issued both in complete and highlights formats on CD. There is no mention of the Mercury name or their recording process - it's being marketed under the label "Dischi Ricordi". The fact is that this was actually recorded by Mercury engineers (using their mobile unit) in the fall of 1957 with their traditional 3-mike setup in the opera house of La Scala in Milan. I have the original Mercury issue on LP, which came with a booklet describing the recording sessions and the miking techniques. The recording was funded by the Ricordi music publishing firm and they retained the rights to the master tapes. After the Mercury issue was dropped from print, this recording was also released in the U.S. on a miserably botched pressing by Everest. It's difficult for me to compare the sound of the CD/LP issues to too great a level of subtlety since I'm unable to overcome a feeling of relief from finally hearing this recording without the ticks, pops, splatter and occasional distortion that afflicted my pressing (bought after it went out of print) of the LP's. Taken on its own, the recording has remarkable clarity and, for once in an opera recording, a credible semblance of the actual voice/orchestra balance heard in an ideal location in a live performance. The engineers took great pains to damp down the normally overreverberant acoustics of the empty hall by hanging heavy material from the boxes and tiers, resulting in a sound that I find, if anything, sometimes overly dry. The opera is conducted by Tullio Serafin, perhaps the last of the great tradition of Italian opera conductors who, in addition to being skilled at pacing and shaping a work with the orchestra, really knew singers to a degree where he could breath with them, support them, and inspire them. Maria Callas' voice is caught here with a clarity and presence that surpass anything I've heard on other recordings. This is a bit of a good news/bad news thing since the voice that is reproduced with such awesome presence is, in this case, often tired and worn sounding, shrill and insecure in its upper register. Nonetheless, the expressive power and remarkable sense of musical continuity that made her singing so impressive, along with her extraordinary dramatic inflections of the text are fully there. A very young (must have been under 25) Renata Scotto sings the smaller part of Glauce. The mezzo is OK, but the tenor and bass are barely adequate. The show belongs to Callas and the conductor who, even with her in less than best voice, generate an electricity that you can almost touch. For audio buffs who don't gag at opera in general and who are fascinated with the exceptional achievements sometimes made during the pioneer days of stereo recording, this is worth hearing. For Callas fans who also want good sound, this will be a must. For Callas fans who don't care about sound, it should be mentioned that there are two "pirated" recordings, derived from live performances, which have her in better voice and even more dramatically fiery than this: the 1953 LaScala production under Bernstein is available on the BJR label in decent sound and has her in opulent voice; the 1958 Dallas performance conducted by Rescigno is available on various "private" labels and not only has her sounding fresher and more dramatically vivid than here, but also has extraodinary singing by Jon Vickers as Jason and Teresa Berganza as Neris. Now could we have on CD some of those Dorati recordings with the Minneapolis Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonica Hungarica and the Fennel/Eastman-Rochester recordings that have been on Absolute Sound's "Reference Recordings" list and currently go for >$35 pressed on sandpaper? - Greg Paley