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From: palmer@Shasta.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Goetterdaemmerung: bad pressing?
Message-ID: <6587@Shasta.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 30-Jun-85 18:51:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: Shasta.6587
Posted: Sun Jun 30 18:51:02 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 08:28:50 EDT
References: <2961@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 30

> Can anyone report any luck with ANY copies of the Solti / Vienna Philharmonic
> performance of _Goetterdaemmerung_?!  Based on my experiences with the London
> digital re-mastering, I'd advise anyone: "Don't!".  There's this really awful
> glitchiness on the second side (near the end), in Act I Scene 1, in Hagen's
> next-to-next-to-last spiel, "...so ruestiger Kraft / in des Ruders Schwung
> ###/ ### r#u#e#h#m#t # s#i#c#h # n#u#r # der, / ...".  Groaty to the extreme,
> it sounds like a folded or badly spliced tape; this is not a scratch on my
> platter.
> 

Well, I pulled out my compact disc copy, cued to the appropriate spot, and 
sure enough the described glitch is there.  An interesting question is 
whether the glitch occurs on earlier pressings; I've never heard one of
them.  

I have to disagree about the negative recommendation on the recording 
because of this one glitch.  I have a reasonably good front-end (Linn Sondek) 
but would be suffering much more from the way an LP set would sound
after the many, many playings I've enjoyed than from this one glitch.
It isn't quite the same as a live performance, but then again I can listen
to it any time I like, without having to stand for 6 hours, and without
having people rustling programs, sneezing, etc. around me.  You win some,
you lose some.

On a slightly related note, John Culshaw's book "Ring Resounding" is
a fascinating tale of the entire "Ring" recording project.  Well worth
digging out of the local library.

				Bill Palmer
				whp4@su-sierra.arpa