Volume 10 Issue 7 - April 2005

OLD WINE ... NEW BOTTLES
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by Bruce Surtees
Some Enchanted Evening is the appropriate title of
a disc from Naxos [8.120643] containing 20 tracks
spanning songs from Broadway to Hollywood sung
by the incomparable bass, Ezio Pinza. The transfers
from The Bell Telephone Hour, RCA, and Columbia
originals could not be better. If we are very lucky,
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Volume One. Also from Naxos reminding us of
what a superlative artist Richard Tauber was is
welcome second volume of his opera arias
[8.111001]. Mainly sung in German, hear what
the fuss about Tauber was all about. .. and still is
more than 50 years after his death.
Welcome news for music lovers and audiophiles alike is the second
batch of ten Living Stereo hybrid two and three channel SACD discs
from RCA. Hybrid discs are playable on the regular CD players which
read the stereo tracks while SACD players read all the encoded channels.
Sony's DSD system reads all the original channels at an astounding rate
of 2,822,400 times per second! On a CD player the improvement over
the earlier Living Stereos is obvious because there is so much more
information to be heard. An SACD system creates a tangible 3D effect.
Fritz Reiner headlines the release with a Dvorak Ninth, Smetana and
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Weinberger; Brahms First Piano Concerto with
Arthur Rubinstein; and Scheherazade and
Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale. Arthur
Fiedler returns with definitive performances of
Gafte Parisienne and La Boutique Fantasque; and
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the Concerto in F,
etc with Earl Wild. Heifetz plays the concertos by
Sibelius, Prokofiev [#2] and Glazunov. Charles
Munch conducts the Dvorak and Walton concertos
with cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, the Berlioz Requiem,
and a Ravel/Debussy album. Composer/conductor
Morton Gould's Brass and Percussion disc has 27
spectacular tracks and is, for me, the most impressive
of these 10 SA CDs. The only disappointing disc is the
Gafte Parisienne which is missing the lower
frequencies where the feet of the orchestra live. Too
bad, because its disc-mate, La Boutique Fantasque is
full range. All the others discs are excellent, both for
performances and reproduction. Incidentally, a rather
good, complete five channel system plus subwoofer
with SACD/CD/DVD-V player has a suggested retail
of $1,299 from Sony.
In honour of the 50th anniversary of the death of
conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler DG recently
issued a two cd package entitled The Fascination of
Furtwiingler (4775238), disc one containing
excerpts of recordings from 1926 to 1937 and a
second with postwar recordings all with the Berlin
Philharmonic. None of the early recordings have been generally available.
All have been carefully remastered and the discs should be of interest to the
conductor's fans and collectors with inquiring minds. Others need not apply.
EMI Canada has a few Furtwangler originals in their domestic catalogue
and last November EMI France issued a bunch of popular recordings in
a uniform edition. DG Canada has quite a few currently in their regular
catalogue. Last month King Records in Japan issued a limited edition
54 CD set licensed entirely from Tahra and Orfeo that was completely
sold out before the issue date. With all the original recordings now in
the Public Domain there are at least 200 Furtwlingler CDs in the market
place but regrettably, except for Music and Arts, Tahra, Naxos, Orpheo,
and maybe one or two others, the sound varies from appalling to
unlistenable. Caveat Emptor.
APRIL 1 - MAY 7 2005
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