greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) (01/11/85)
These are my impressions, both positive and negative, of several CD issues I've been able to listen to carefully. * Mahler: Symphony No. 2. Of the three I've heard (Solti/Chicago, Tennstedt/LPO, Maazel/VPO) I would recommend the Tennstedt. Solti's suffers from an alto soloist in the important "Urlicht" movement whose singing I found shockingly bad for a major label production. I found Maazel's shaping and pacing of the work inferior, in addition to which the CBS recorded sound was significantly more congested. My first preference remains the (so-far) analogue-only release of the Abbado/Chicago Symphony recording on DGG. * Wagner: Siegfried. Again, I've heard three (Solti, Boehm and Janowski). The Solti and Boehm derive from analogue tapes, the Solti a 1962 studio production and the Boehm a 1966 live Bayreuth recording. In almost every regard I would rank the Solti first, even, despite its age, the recorded sound. The singing is consistently superior (even compared with the same Siegfried and Brunnhilde on the Boehm set) to the others; Solti's conducting has great animation, power, and allows climactic passages greater weight than either Boehm or Janowski; and the playing of the Vienna Philharmonic is superior to the excellent playing of the Bayreuth Orchestra (Boehm) and Dresden Staatskapelle (Janowski). * Verdi: Macbeth. Sinopoli's DGG set is powerfully sung, played and conducted, and makes an impressive statement of the work. I find it hard to choose, in the grounds of performance, between this and the 1976 Abbado/La Scala (analogue) recording. * Mozart: The Magic Flute. I haven't heard the Haitink on CD, but have heard the Karajan (DGG), Levine (RCA) and Davis (Philips) in the new format. This makes for a difficult choice. I find Davis' the most beautifully shaped and played, the Levine most dramatic. There were various sections in which I found Karajan's tempi either too slow or too fast, and there is dreadful singing by the boy soloists performing the three genii, along with superb singing by Edith Mathis (Pamina) and excellent singing by Francesco Araiza (Tamino). Davis also has superb singing from his Pamina, Margaret Price, but I find Peter Schreier's voice unattractive as Tamino. Levine's has the fullest dialogue and is generally well sung, although Cortrubas cannot match the sheer beauty of either Price or Mathis. Pressed for a choice, I'd probably go for the Davis (Philips). I understand that the 1953 (mono) recording of Puccini's "Tosca" with Callas and Di Stefano is planned for release on CD. This is by no means a favorite opera of mine, but the performance is exceptional, easily worth tolerating aging sound, particularly if that sound is improved in the process. Do not confuse this with the dreadful stereo (1965) remake Callas did, conducted by Georges Pretre. - Greg Paley