| The recording industry is capitalizing
on its many classic recordings over the last 75 years.
Everywhere you go you see re-releases of famous artists
in defining performances. I mentioned in the October
review of Bruno Walter’s Beethoven First and
Second Symphonies that sometimes I wonder whether
the recordings I see will have an audio quality that
our modern sound systems will do justice to. I also
mentioned that recordings loved when younger may do
not live up to the standards acquired after years
of musical experience.
This is perhaps why I enjoyed this two disk
set which EMI has assembled of what it calls “Defining
Moments” in recording history. One gets to preview
old classic offerings without purchasing the full
item. But there is another reason for enjoyment. It
is the sheer majesty of hearing how much excellence
pervaded the twentieth century, the artists
and their engineers. It is less about history than
how these performances inform us about our musical
time.
There are thirty-seven selections stretched
over an over 2 ½ hour time period. The complete
list and also audio sound bytes are available at http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3995929
I will state that
I enjoyed everyone one of them but several stand out
even among the greatest. On the singing side, Jussi
Björling, Victoria de los Angeles, Sir Thomas
Beecham, are almost incomparable. I relished hearing
them as it was the first Bohème that
I heard as a young man. Callas and di Stephano (in
prime voice) are here in Il Trovatore. Schwarzkopf
gives us a sample of her Wesendonck lieder
and Kathleen Ferrier with Bruno Walter in one of the
Kindertotenleider.
Of pianists, one
can sample Richter in the Schumann Piano Concerto,
Michelangeli in the Ravel G Major or Walter Gieseking
in one of Debussy Préludes.
Conductors other
than Walter and Beecham, are Von Karajan, Klemperer,
Furtwängler and Sir John Barbirolli in the still
well-selling Elgar Cello Concerto with Jacqueline
du Pré.
Some care has been
taken in the assembly of the choices because throughout
the two disks there is not a single boring moment.
One leaves it with a sense of anticipation and with
more knowledge of what to reach for on the shelves
of the music stores.
There is a huge booket
with the CDs. Very well done indeed.
- Bill Riley
|
