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Wagner - Overtures, Preludes and Other Orchestral Music - Steinberg/PSO

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on June 26, 2015 at 21:30:53

I've been meaning to post about this album since it came out last month. I's a new HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) remastering of a classic 1962 Command Classics recording now available in a variety of formats, from CD-quality to DXD (24/352.8). It's derived from a commercial open reel tape and employs the original Command Classics cover art:



I opted for the 24/96 download since I think anything beyond that is overkill with an analogue recording from the 60's, but to each his own. As with their previous three most recent Command Classics reissues (i.e., the ones with the original cover art), HDTT has done a really fine job in remastering it and making it available in what will probably be its peak sonic incarnation, given the age of the tapes (and the disinclination of the powers that be to reissue these albums from their 35mm magnetic film masters which are now, I assume, being stored - and, it seems, forgotten - in Hanover, Germany).

Command Classics was a mainstream label which prided itself on its sonic attainments as well as its relationships with some of the greatest musicians of the time, such as Steinberg and the PSO. They also hired a couple of the greatest names in classical recording at that time (Robert Fine and George Piros, both previously with Mercury Living Presence) to ensure top flight engineering. One difference between how Fine and Piros recorded for Mercury vs. how they recorded for Command Classics is that they used a few more microphones in their Command recordings (3 for Mercury, 7 for Command Classics). So, strictly speaking, I wouldn't necessarily call the Command Classics albums minimally microphoned, but I found them marvelous nevertheless, with great impact and (for the time) wonderful frequency and dynamic extension.

In this particular album, one notices right away how realistically the string sonorities are captured (particularly luscious in the Meistersinger Prelude!). There were a number of other really great Wagner Orchestral Music albums issued around this time, such as the Dorati/LSO albums for Mercury. However, the one that got the most press was the slightly later Szell/Cleveland album of Ring Excerpts for CBS. I confess that I've never been able to understand the popularity of that CBS album. Despite the high degree of discipline that Szell imposes on the orchestra, the recording quality itself has always seemed to me dreadfully artificial and it's really a distraction in one's listening. (I've listened to it in most of its incarnations from LP to SACD.) Sure, there might be a second or two where Steinberg's performance isn't as perfectly coordinated as Szell's, but, in a strange sort of way, it also makes Steinberg's performances more human. (And I think that's important for a lot of Wagner's music.)

Of course, one may prefer elements in other recordings to these Steinberg performances. For instance, I prefer more distinctly audible individual tympani strokes near the beginning of the Meistersinger Prelude (e.g., which we hear in the Dorati/LSO performance). Nevertheless, these are great performances which, like the others that Steinberg and the PSO did for Command Classics, ought to be much better known. HDTT is in a zone with their latest Command reissues, and I couldn't be more grateful to HDTT for making these recordings available again in remasterings which are so much better than we have any right to expect. So, FWIW, I recommend this recording very highly and look forward to their expertly accomplished reissues of other titles in the wonderful Command Classics catalogue.

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