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Discussion: Wagner: Tannhäuser - Janowski

Posts: 24
Page: 1 2 3 next

Post by tream December 21, 2012 (1 of 24)
Here's a link to a review of the concert performance recorded here. Apparently the Dresden version has been used, which is kind of unfortunate in my view. A lot of prime post Tristan Wagner is lost, in the dubious name of stylistic purity. Heck, the Ring isn't stylistically pure, either. Wagner's compositional skills increased tremendously between Rheingold and Gotterdamerung, and Rheingold, Walkure and Siegfried are music dramas while Gotterdamerung is grand opera.

To date, I think the best overall reading of Tannhauser that I have heard has been Sinopoli's - great cast, and I find myself thinking always what a beautiful score this is. Domingo's German is "interesting", and actually find his voice a bit too plump for the role - I really like Rene Kollo, for Solti, in this role. But - the Sinopoli is great, and I prefer the other singers on Sinopoli to Solti's.

I have Gerdes (on SACD) as well...having Nilsson as both Venus and Elizabeth is odd - Sawallisch, Solti, and Konwitschny. The latter would be a great recording of the Dresden version (Grummer and Fischer Dieskau are both superb) if it wasn't for Hans Hopf's voice. Some wag once said that Hopf sounds better if you are in the next room....I tried this and found that it was true!




http://ihearvoices.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/wagners-tannhauser-rundfunk-sinfonieorchester-berlin-05-05-2012/

Post by SteelyTom February 4, 2013 (2 of 24)
'Recording type' is PCM, I presume.

Post by Castor February 5, 2013 (3 of 24)
SteelyTom said:

'Recording type' is PCM, I presume.

Yes - as are all the previous issues.
DSD was incorrectly printed on the cases of the first two releases (Flying Dutchman and Meistersinger).

Post by Polly Nomial April 4, 2013 (4 of 24)
Thanks to AmonRa in another post - this link is well suited to this set:

http://51terakoya.blogspot.fi/

Post by Kveld-Úlfr April 4, 2013 (5 of 24)
SteelyTom said:

'Recording type' is PCM, I presume.

Indeed, 88.2/24, as per AmonRa's link posted above.

Post by Iain April 4, 2013 (6 of 24)
Kveld-Úlfr said:

Indeed, 88.2/24, as per AmonRa's link posted above.

That link says:
" Besides the system normally equipped in Philharmonie, Recorder MERGING Technologies Pyramix, HA Grace Design m802, DAC Prism Sound Dream ADA-8, Benchmark Media Systems AD2408-96 were brought into the room by Polyhymnia. Audio from the main microphone array, for surround sound for SACD, is sent through HA Grace Design m802 and analog-digital converted by Prism Sound Dream ADA-8. Other audio channels from spot
microphones are sent through a branch point, where lines for radiobroadcasting are separated, and analogdigitalconverted by Benchmark Media Systems AD2408-96. The master clock from DCS 904, andtherecordingwasoperated in 88.2kHz/24bit."

Not sure to what that last sentence is referring. as editing is quite sloppy. Could be just playback was at 88.2/24, not something in recording chain.

Post by sylvian April 4, 2013 (7 of 24)
Personal Q to Kveld:

I have checked your library only recently and saw Wagner with Fisch in it.

I would like to know your personal view on that release of the whole ring. I have jast purchased RHEINGOLD this week and would like to know your opinion on the other parts of THE RING cycle.pls.

Best regards Anthony.

Post by hiredfox April 4, 2013 (8 of 24)
Iain said:

That link says:
" Besides the system normally equipped in Philharmonie, Recorder MERGING Technologies Pyramix, HA Grace Design m802, DAC Prism Sound Dream ADA-8, Benchmark Media Systems AD2408-96 were brought into the room by Polyhymnia. Audio from the main microphone array, for surround sound for SACD, is sent through HA Grace Design m802 and analog-digital converted by Prism Sound Dream ADA-8. Other audio channels from spot
microphones are sent through a branch point, where lines for radiobroadcasting are separated, and analogdigitalconverted by Benchmark Media Systems AD2408-96. The master clock from DCS 904, andtherecordingwasoperated in 88.2kHz/24bit."

Not sure to what that last sentence is referring. as editing is quite sloppy. Could be just playback was at 88.2/24, not something in recording chain.

I mentioned in an earlier thread that Polyhymnia have the same problem at the Concertgebouw when recording RCO Live as the place is wired for radio sound with no space for their own equipment. That's also 88/24

Post by Kveld-Úlfr April 5, 2013 (9 of 24)
sylvian said:

Personal Q to Kveld:

I would like to know your personal view on that release of the whole ring. I have jast purchased RHEINGOLD this week and would like to know your opinion on the other parts of THE RING cycle.pls.

Sylvian,

Many thanks for your enquiry, which honors me to say the least. This may seem too much of a reaction but I'm no Wagner expert (only a dilettante admirer of his) and not even 30 years old yet, so not a classical music expert either and my musical experience is not as strong as some other posters on this site who had the chance to see the release of some historical albums I would have loved to get my hands on at that time. Basically I'm a young rock-blues-metal-and-jazz listener, and even though I'm rapidly expanding my classical library, I certainly cannot claim being an eminent voice upon the subject. I'll do my best in answering your question, albeit giving more impression than real connoisseur critic.

I never heard the entire Ring before I purchased these Melba copies, only bits of it. It was a dream of mine to get my hands on the whole stuff on SA-CD as soon as this would be released. I bought them along as they came out in the end of 2007: I was 21 years old, a newcomer in the SA-CD world, and I only had a handfull of titles in this format, Brothers In Arms and Dark Side of The Moon being like trophies among them, the jewels of my then ridiculously small collection.
So, I only knew some parts of the Ring cycle, and I was throwing myself in the risky adventure of spending almost 200€ for a musical piece I would literally discover. My attention was first drawn towards the sound. It was breathtaking. The Ring bits I had heard before were very commercial and micked very close to the sources IMO, recorded to be bold and punchy and impressive, like movie score (and bits of the Ring cycle were indeed used for movie purpose). Here, there was SOUNDSTAGE. These discs were recorded live in the Sydney Opera venue (such chic and prestige !) and I immediately felt this was the right way to represent this masterful piece of work: live performance, authenticity, no studio tricks, spontaneousness and - the very lively touch - an audience to react, laugh, applause and hold their breath.
Every detail of it is captured, though smoothly if compared to the versions I knew, without the studio crispness and brazen perfection - which is perfectly suitable for anything else... but not here.
How could this be ? I always associated this studio crispness with detail before, but I would now face the ambience of a stage performance with every moment captured as if you were there, experiencing all the passion of rises and falls and the intensity of the acting. Tremendous in light and love, tremendous in doom and hate, all was here encapsulated like a unearthly soul offering its beauty to the eye of the beholder, and the SA-CD sound was the shape it had taken to this purpose.
Then I knew I was right to wait, I knew no other version than this SA-CD set was what I was waiting for in order to discover the Ring in its entirety and understand its complexity through this marvellous sound-capture, better than I would have if I had discovered it on CD before.

The Ring is a heavy work. I don't listen to it very often. However, when I do so, I listen to the whole cycle in a single row, without losing a moment of it, discovering new things in it each time and even discovering new musical tendencies in myself. Through these discs I understood that music in high definition seldom is a way to impress everyone with broken high frequency boundaries and dynamic prowess: back to the essential basis of it all, the Ring by Fischer on SA-CD is the frozen picture of a warm beauty, a giant and extremely detailed photograph of a masterpiece brilliantly performed.

For more "professional" and dispassionate opinion, I advise you to take a look at the reviews on this site :-)

Post by sylvian April 5, 2013 (10 of 24)
Thanks Kveld.

I am also rock-jazz-pop oriented person, but I cannot find enough satisfaction with contemporary performers, So due to my interest in Robert Fripp and also YES members and also Emerson Lake and Palmer I came to early 20th century composers which fully satisfied my musical apetite a while ago.

I have the Ring on DVD (Patrice Chéreau production with Boulez conducting) and my dissatisfaction with the sound quality moved me onwards to search better sounding performance. I have read reviews on Fisch cycle on this site and also in the Australian press at the time.

I had to ask for your opinion as a newcomer as well, since I am not romantic music admirer at all and as you can see in my library, there are few exeptions I made with pre-XXth century music. My interest in classical era is nevertheless slightly growing.

Thanks a lot again

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