Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site olivee.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!petsd!peora!pesnta!hplabs!oliveb!olivee!greg From: greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: Re: Goetterdaemmerung: bad pressing? Message-ID: <410@olivee.UUCP> Date: Wed, 3-Jul-85 15:20:07 EDT Article-I.D.: olivee.410 Posted: Wed Jul 3 15:20:07 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 7-Jul-85 05:06:31 EDT References: <2961@decwrl.UUCP> <6587@Shasta.ARPA> Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca Lines: 45 I hadn't noticed the glitch mentioned when I was listening to the CD set. I have a Telefunken LP pressing, which is excellent and pre-dates both the DMM reissue and the "Digitally Remastered" issue. I haven't had a chance to go back and find this spot on my LP's, but I have an idea with regard to what might be the cause of the problem on the digitally remastered (LP and CD) copies. On my Telefunken copies there are a number of clearly audible splices. They are easily detectable because they often blunt the attack on a chord, and there is a definite shift in the acoustic perspective. Considering the care that went into this project, I suspect that the engineers at the time (1964) did not envision home equipment with the kind of detail and ambience resolution that would make these things so clearly audible. In any case, these same splices were much less noticeable on the CD, which means that, in the course of remastering, somebody went back and re-edited the masters so as to clean these up. My guess would be that, in the course of doing this and, perhaps, trying to "correct" a splice at the point in Act I mentioned, the result ended up being a more audible glitch than was on the original. Incidentally, good as the recording is, it can't compare in impact to a decent live, staged performance. This was reinforced in my own mind by seeing the S.F. Ring recently - there is a particular catharsis to be experienced in the theater that records are unable to supply. Furthermore, anyone who saw Nilsson performing Brunnhilde live in the late 60's/early 70's will attest that the recording doesn't begin to suggest the power and intensity of her interpretation, or even the overwhelming cut and voluminous outpouring of the actual sound of her voice, particularly in the top register. She's the only Brunnhilde I've heard who tended to go slightly sharp on the top notes at the end of the Immolation Scene, and her oath on the spear in Act 2 was, in the theater, about the loudest thing I've ever heard. Those who enjoy Culshaw's "Ring Resounding" book will also enjoy his much later "Putting the Record Straight" - incomplete due to his sudden death from viral hepatitis. At the time of his writing the later book, the fact that he was no longer under a fixed contract to any one firm allowed him to be much freer in speaking out and naming names that he had been in the "Ring Resounding" book. - Greg Paley