Ruggiero Leoncavallo: "I Pagliacci"
Nedda............. Maria Meneghini Callas, Soprano
Canio.................. Giuseppe di Stefano, Tenor
Tonio...................... Tito Gobbi, Baritone
Beppe......................... Nicola Monti, Tenor
Silvio.............................. Rolando Panerai, Baritone
Side One: Prologue, Act One (part 1) / Side Two: Act One (part 2) / Side Three: Intermezzo, Act Two
3 files zip FLAC Mega Download
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala Opera House, Milan conducted by Tullio Serafin
Columbia 33CXS 1211 / 33CX 1212 1963 pressings / pre-1959 matrices: XBX 157 -4N / XBX 158 -4N / XBX 159 -2N
Recorded: 12-17 June 1954, Teatro alla Scala, Milan 16/44 HD EMG review >>>
Presumably you would prefer this copied from the stunningly scarce 'original 24bit CD'; as re-recorded in the Balls Pond Road Swimming Baths.
So you can compare this to Mr P's Sample (starts @ 8.57", side two) - and spend your pocket-money THERE !!
http://www.mcelhearn.com/the-new-maria-callas-remasters-good-or-bad
Robert E. Seletsky 07/24/2015
Having written at very great length in The Opera Quarterly about Callas’ recordings in articles published between 2000 and 2005........ Mr. Rose has his own agenda, with which I personally take issue. He is marketing from-LP, “ambient stereo” versions of the Callas studio material. That is his right, though I find them neither appealing nor accurate.
Peter 01/31/2016
However, I feel Andrew’s remasters lack real transparency – it’s as if the music has been a little “smoothed over”, certainly leading edges are slightly rounded, blurred if you prefer. Perhaps most significantly, “ambient stereo” is no replacement for those subtle acoustic cues which exist even on 1950s mono recordings.
Nelson Sep 14, 2017
Andrew Rose... has no access to master materials. Quite often he is not forthcoming on what his sources are at all, so they could just be reworked from commercial CD releases OR LP pressings…who knows. If some hear his fake stereo and overprocessed versions as desirable, so be it..
Thank you - should be interesting, entirely new to me.
ReplyDeleteBut at least i can't download the sample of Mr P, says the file 'can't be retrieved for security reasons', whatever that means!
Between you and me (and I think almost everyone else has now been abducted by Aliens!!) it was my fault - as put the 'PACO' in lower-type..so it works now..and you can hear the lovely swimming-bath acoustic with the lisping 'HiFi' voices..
DeleteAnyway, surely it's time for me to give these blogs a hit-on-the-head..and can't see that the surviving 'non-CD' blogs will carry-on much longer - due to the sheer indifference 'displayed' (sic) by the sodding 'visitors'/downloaders (aka 'freeloaders')..
'PS' I almost hope they don't like the sound of this - (taken from phono-stage to line-in of the 24/96 soundcard), albeit recorded @ 16/44 - as can't say I do too much... compared to the LP's.
DeleteBut at least it hasn't been pinched from a CD-Set..and reflects, more accurately, what Walter Legge wanted it to sound like ('up-front'..a bit Brash)..
Hey..JUST LIKE ME...LOL
It is curious that contrariwise, some CD blogs are just brimming with warm and complimentary comments from their 'customers' - so the Aliens don't abduct just anyone!
DeleteAnd it is as usual; in your transfer the voices sound warm and natural, whereas in 'the other' they don't. In this day and age of predominantly electronic communications, maybe some people don't recognise it, as they are used to filtered voices and probably rarely go out to hear real ones, ha-ha.
Thanks again - this will take my whole afternoon! i don't think i've heard Callas before, at least a complete opera.
Actually the 'problem' is with the LP's (despite a Callas 'fan-site' stating they are mostly much better than the CD's) - as they sound 'four-square', and without the 'mastertape allure' of the splendid 1983 re-issue of French Arias (ASD 4306)...and this, via Digital, has acquired quite some 'harshness' (at least via the soundcard into HiFi)..but Mr P's is just plain 'faked'
DeleteThere's a Rita Gorr (Cluytens conducted) recital on French EMI reissued about 1983 that sounds almost as good; so mainly to do with tape-to-LP improvements.