What are your recommendations for Humperdinck's opera
on cd?
Thank you :)
Quote from: Itullian on October 14, 2013, 11:37:53 AM
What are your recommendations for Humperdinck's opera
on cd?
Thank you :)
The one you will probably find recommended most often is Tate, but that one appears to be OOP. Pritchard is very good as well, but is also OOP. You can get either of them used fairly cheaply though. The Karajan is decent too, but the sound is kind of old and this is an opera I like to luxuriate in the sound a bit, so that would not be a first recommendation for me.
I haven't heard it, but am considering this one because of the amazing cast:
[asin]B00000JLNA[/asin]
Any comments, anyone?
Quote from: mc ukrneal on October 14, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
The one you will probably find recommended most often is Tate, but that one appears to be OOP. Pritchard is very good as well, but is also OOP. You can get either of them used fairly cheaply though. The Karajan is decent too, but the sound is kind of old and this is an opera I like to luxuriate in the sound a bit, so that would not be a first recommendation for me.
I'd just add that, though mono, the Karajan was one of the very best Walter Legge productions (up there with the Callas Tosca), so atmospheric you hardly miss stereo. That said some of the remasterings rather messed up the sound picture. It has been re-issued quite often and I have no idea which would be the best remastering to go for.
Quote from: betterthanfine on October 28, 2013, 02:15:05 PM
I haven't heard it, but am considering this one because of the amazing cast:
[asin]B00000JLNA[/asin]
Any comments, anyone?
I haven't heard it in years (not long after it first came out on LP), but it was the recording I learned the opera from, and it was pretty good, as I recall. I'll also cast a vote for Tate's EMI recording.
There is a Solti version with Popp and Fassbaender. It is excellent, though misses the bucolic a little. There is a terrific version in English conducted by Mackerras on Chandos. I still go back to the Karajan one though. It is perfect and the remastering I have seems fine.
Mike