Mono v stereo

[rauschwerk]

I have five Berlioz overtures, Beecham and the RPO, including Le Corsaire on an LP GBL5633.I bought it in 1979, would that be the early recording.

That collection dates from 1954 and was last reissued on CD by Sony. It contains Beecham's second recording of Le Corsaire, my favourite of the three he made. What a wizard he was! He speeds up for the coda but so subtly that you hardly realise it unless you immediately replay the track from the beginning.

[salymap]

rauschwerk Thanks, It's a lovely LP and I'm very fond of it.

[rauschwerk]

One of the saddest things about R3 is that it has become a mono-free zone since the demise of CD Masters. All we seem to get now is one or two tracks introduced by Mark Swartzentruber on Sunday Morning. So much wonderful music making is surely being missed by the younger generation of listeners who will come to think of older recordings as the preserve of the anorak. When did we last hear a broadcast of Menuhin in his youthful prime? Is the Classical Collection survey going to include any Beethoven sonata recordings by Schnabel, Moiseiwitsch and others who recorded them only on 78s? Not much sign of it yet, I fear.

[umslopogaas]

Post 34 Ferretfancy

Your mention of those Decca LPs sent me off to dig out my copies. You are right about the St Matthew Passion bookllet, they really pushed the boat out to explain exactly where every performer stood or sat in this extraordinary venue, the Church of Schloss Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart. Musicians in the middle, two organs to the left and right, two choirs left and right behind, the soloists and more musicians with two choruses on a raised platform behind the two choirs, then finally a third choir (ripieno) in the balcony at the back. They also mark a 'congregation' left and right to the front of the two orchestras, a conductor in the centre between the two orchestras and finally a single 'listener' between the two 'congregations'. One imagines Decca didnt actually assemble a 'congregation' for the actual recording, because of the shuffles and coughs that would have ensued, though knowing Decca's enthusiasm for realism, it wouldnt have been surprising if they had.

I think your memory of the Solti 'Tristan' booklet is playing you false, though, mine has no details of recording layout, just three artist's sketches of the sets for the three acts. Interesting spelling variants: on the booket cover and cast list she is 'Isolde' but in the actual libretto her parts are labelled 'Isolda', both in english and german.

The Solti 'Ring' LPs also had very fine booklets. The first one, the 1959 'Rhinegold' lacks libretto, you just get a summary of the plot and some photos of the studio set up. The later boxes have more detailed booklets with full libretto. I've got these on CD too, but the booklets arent nearly so impressive, due to the need to get it all into a fraction of the space, and in three languages instead of just english. The 'Die Walkure' LP booklet has a wonderful profile photo of Birgit Nilsson in full valkyrie helmet and armour and obviously trying very hard to keep a straight face.

[Ferretfancy]

umslopogaas,
Yes you are right about the booklet for Tristan, I just remember the comments by Culshaw describing the scenic sketches and pointing out the layout of Islode's ship etc.
The original LPs came with an extra "Birth of a Recording" LP with some excruciating sounds of Solti bawling out the roles during piano rehearsals - not one to hear too often!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I may be wrong, but I think the Solti Siegfried LP set had a stage setup diagram. And wasn't this the first "Sonic Stage" recording of the Ring cycle (though Culshaw said later that it was no more than a name - a mere suggestion to inspire the critics into thinking there had been a new development)?

[gradus]

In the libretto for the Decca 'Sonic Stage' Siegfried, at the beginning of each Act, there is a sketch showing where everything was placed eg Act One has the Forge across the back of the centre stage, Mime's anvil left mid-stage and the Big Anvil in front of the Forge, the entrance to the cave being front right. Very splendid it sounds still too.

[umslopogaas]

Posts 51 and 52 Eine Alpensinfonie and Gradus

The LP box sets of Walkure, Siegrfried and Gotterdamerung are all "Sonic Stage" and in the Decca SET series: Das Rhinegold was the first and has the number SXL 2101-3, it doesnt seem to be "Sonic Stage". There are various details in the Siegfried booklet of the sound effects, but no actual explanation of what "Sonic Stage" is.

The Rhinegold booklet gives only a synopsis of the plot, not a libretto, although there are some fine photos of the orchestra and recording set up and a great one of Solti in full cry, looking like he's about to take a bite out of the orchestra.

The Siegfried booklet gives full libretto in german and english, and a little sketch of the stage layout for acts 1 and 2 (but not act 3): for act 1, big anvil rear centre in front of the forge, small anvil centre left, that sort of thing. There are also a couple of fine stills from the Fritz Lang film 'Siegfried'. There is a bit of information about their attempts to adhere accurately to Wagner's stage directions, but no details of orchestral layout.

[umslopogaas]

Posts 51 and 52 Eine Alpensinfonie and Gradus

The LP box sets of Walkure, Siegrfried and Gotterdamerung are all "Sonic Stage" and in the Decca SET series: Das Rhinegold was the first and has the number SXL 2101-3, it doesnt seem to be "Sonic Stage". There are various details in the Siegfried booklet of the sound effects, but no actual explanation of what "Sonic Stage" is.

The Rhinegold booklet gives only a synopsis of the plot, not a libretto, although there are some fine photos of the orchestra and recording set up and a great one of Solti in full cry, looking like he's about to take a bite out of the orchestra.

The Siegfried booklet gives full libretto in german and english, and a little sketch of the stage layout for acts 1 and 2 (but not act 3): for act 1, big anvil rear centre in front of the forge, small anvil centre left, that sort of thing. There are also a couple of fine stills from the Fritz Lang film 'Siegfried'. There is a bit of information about their attempts to adhere accurately to Wagner's stage directions, but no details of orchestral layout.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

SonicStage was a con, according to John Culshaw:-

"At the time of Rheingold I had suggested, dead-pan, that for the final lines the voices of the Rhinemaidens could be heard coming from below the Rainbow Bridge. This was picked up and observed with amazement by most of the reviewers, whereas of course it is an impossibility. Stereo can convey right, left and centre, and all manner of forward and backward perspectives, but it cannot possibly convey anything in the vertical plane. Having got away with that spoof we now tried another with Salome, which was to suggest that we had invented an entirely new approach to operatic recording, whereas all we had done was to to pay very strict attention to Strauss's orchestral textures. We called it "SonicStage", and the art department came up with and emblem that had similarities (to put it mildly) to CinemaScope. I was inclined to think we had gone too far this time, but by the time I was convinced we had gone too far it was too late to stop the advertising. And it worked: it was greeted as a major technical development, whereas there was not a jot of difference between Salome and any other opera we had recorded in Vienna for the past three years - except, that is, for Strauss's scoring. I wish now that we had not done it, because it was childish; but it was at least an oblique was of getting a kind of private revenge on those critics who persisted in parading their prejudices."

[umslopogaas]

Many thanks Eine Alpensinfonie, I must try and get hold of a copy of Culshaw's writings, I am a great fan of Decca. And even if Sonic Stage itself was a con, they are great recordings in any case. I just went and looked at various Decca opera recordings and apart from the last three Ring operas and Salome, the only other Sonic Stage I can find is the Solti Elektra. Solti's other Wagner opera recordings and his Der Rosenkavalier dont feature it. I've also got a few Decca recordings of Verdi and Puccini operas with Solti and other conductors, and they arent Sonic Stage either. Looks like it was a fairly short-lived phenomenon.

[Alf-Prufrock]

I seem to remember, long ago, Walter Legge taking pride in being able to suggest vertical extension of the sound stage - in mono as well as stereo! He explained it as an aural trick achieved by putting a notch in the frequency response, though at quite which (kilo)herz I cannot recall.

Perhaps somebody else may remember the details.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I just went and looked at various Decca opera recordings and apart from the last three Ring operas and Salome, the only other Sonic Stage I can find is the Solti Elektra.

Yes, I'm fairly sure you are right. Elektra was John Culshaw's last opera recording for Decca, so I suppose the name went with him, so to speak.

[Ferretfancy]

The term Sonic Stage may have been a gimmick, but the production techniques were not. I know that musically there's more to making a successful recording than stereo staging, but the Decca team were the first to truly realise it's potential in opera, and the other companies were slow to follow. As an example, compare the Decca Peter Grimes produced by Erik Smith with the later recording with Vickers and Colin Davis. The former conjures up an imaginative sound world that the Philips version does not achieve, fine though it is, and I do enjoy both. It was this ability to create a theatre of the mind, as it were, that marked out those pioneering versions.

Oddly, I don't think that Culshaw was as successful in his television career, when he did have picture as well as sound. Although he did persuade Britten to deliver Owen Wingrave, it wasn't an unqualified success, neither were the studio settings for Grimes.

As for the Ring, well maybe it didn't always work, but I still find the thunder in Gotterdammerung thrilling, even if it did raise a few eyebrows. I did smile though, when somebody said that the collapse of the Hall of the Gibichungs reminded him of a chip pan catching fire!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The term Sonic Stage may have been a gimmick, but the production techniques were not. I know that musically there's more to making a successful recording than stereo staging, but the Decca team were the first to truly realise it's potential in opera, and the other companies were slow to follow.

I would go further and say that even to this day, no-one has matched the imagination of the Decca team in the late 50s and throughout the 1960s.