| To: "Vocalist" Subject: RE: The charm of the old (was Renee Fleming &C.) Date sent: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 11:43:25 -0500 Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Laurie Kubiak wrote:
>>I also feel sometimes that many singers nowadays never listen to anything recorded before 1970, because of lower production standards before that date. For myself, the most a recording is 'produced', the more I am conscious that I listening to an electronic signal, and not flesh and blood, catgut and cane. So perhaps the appeal of these old recordings is nothing more than the sense of listening to real people, complete with financial problems, ex-wives, halitosis and unwanted nasal hair. >>>>>
I don't know about the last phrase but there is certainly a lot that can be learned from the older recordings. It's critical that the recordings have been corrected for pitch problems arising from the recording technology. 78 RPM was often +/- 10%. Certainly the recordings that Ward Marston has remastered are exemplary in that respect. He has his own record label and web site at: www.marstonrecords.com
A colleague of mine at work is going to see Turandot in a couple of weeks and was telling me about a recording that she had been listening to with Jose Carreras as Calaf and that he wasn't satisfactory. I brought in my Bjorling/Nilsson version and told her that this might be of interest. Needless to say she was blown away by both voices!!
Alan
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