I purchased the set at a very good price when it went on sale on importcds.com <http://importcds.com/>. I mentioned this set as an example of what good remastering can do for a digital format on my cast recording blog.
I have listened to about half the set and I agree with everything you have said. The sound is truly spectacular. The legendary 1953 Tosca has never sounded better. The background is virtually free from hiss and has a wonderful openness about it. We’d all be in heaven if *every* release would get this treatment, but I know that this is totally the thoughts of a madman. Yet I wonder, how much money could Warner be making on these, since so much of the catalog is now public domain?
I have two “could we have made it better” thoughts: printing the actual librettos rather than placing them on a CD, and including the Columbia etc., logos on the cover facsimiles.
DrG
> On Dec 2, 2014, at 1:22 PM, Alex McGehee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hey gang!
> I find it interesting that no one has commented on Warner's remastering of Maria Callas's recorded EMI legacy. EMI really milked these recordings and frankly each new reissue was worse than the first one done in the early 1980s –– many problems well documented by the diva's devotees.
>
> Warner went back to the original masters supervised the new issues with an engineering team that new what it was doing (though maybe not in baking some of the tapes) and the results truly are revelatory. I think the "Lyric and Colortura Arias" recording from 1954 is one of the top ten Desert Island discs and high-up even there. Warner has done a tremendous service to Callas's great gift. And yes the box weighs a ton and would break a foot if dropped. But Warner finally achieved what EMI never managed to do, despite the small fortune EMI made off the dramatic soprano of the 20th century. I think it's worth shelling out those extra bucks for this. I raided a jar with a stash of three years of pocket change. Has anyone else managed to hear these remasterings? I'd be interested in your thoughts.
>
> Alex McGehee
|