Testament Label Favourites

[cloughie]

There is one fair point I think about their pricing . The Brahms 2 with Barbirolli that apparently preceded the opening of Coventry Cathedral with the BPO is alone on disc no doubt as the rest of the concert was apparently not recorded . That surely called for Testament to put it out at a special price . Otherwise , I think the quality of the repertoire and the proper new booklet notes justify a higher mid price offering.

It would be a gem for a fiver!

[Petrushka]

It would be a gem for a fiver!

It would indeed. The Testament website has this at £10.99 which, for a 50 year old mono radio recording, simply isn't competetive in this day and age. It's when you get to the boxed sets when you realise just how steep their prices are. As I have some of the items elsewhere, I could not justify spending £65 on the Klemperer box much as I would like to pick up the items I don't have. At half that price I'd do it.

[Prommer]

The Klemperer Fidelio from 1961 is white hot - and compares favourably even with the classic studio set of the time, with some cast modifications.

[amateur51]

The Klemperer Fidelio from 1961 is white hot - and compares favourably even with the classic studio set of the time, with some cast modifications.

I completely agree, Prommer

[Barbirollians]

I agree too - an incandescent performance by which I judge all others.

[cloughie]

I completely agree, Prommer

But as noted before Testament's asking price is steep!

[mathias broucek]

The Klemperer Fidelio from 1961 is white hot - and compares favourably even with the classic studio set of the time, with some cast modifications.

But the EMI version costs £7.96 and the Testament £21.25 (both Amazon marketplace UK incl postage)

That said, I'm slightly less irritated by their pricing of newly released material than the inflated cost of remastered material from the LP era.

[Barbirollians]

Yes but perhaps one might ask whether the prices are too low as much as we appreciate them .

[mathias broucek]

Yes but perhaps one might ask whether the prices are too low as much as we appreciate them .

I agree that CDs, and particularly boxed sets, are now too cheap for the long-term health of the industry. (And also for the amount of storage I have!)

But I fear that Testament's prices may be too high for its long-term survival. Even "addicts" like me are reluctant to partake and its products are clearly not aimed at buyers who are not specialist collectors.

[Prommer]

Which brings me to the great unknowable: was Klemperer's Lohengrin at the Garden in 1963 ever recorded, either for broadcast or in-house? It had Sandor Konya as Lohengrin, Rita Gorr as Ortrud and Regine Crepin as Elsa! Oh, and Peter Glossop as the Herald. One for Testament if it was!

[Prommer]

PS on the Fidelio, if one is comparing the live broadcast to the famous EMI recording, I for one will take Hotter over Berry (Pizarro) and Jurinac over Ludwig (Leonore) any day!

[Bryn]

My respect for the Testament label took a big dive when their transfer of Boult's Havergal Brian 'Gothic' came out. Nowhere in the accompanying booklet or liners is there a mention of the source being the receiver end of an FM transmission*. The resulting CDs sound hardly better than my old reel-to-reel tapes from such a broadcast.

*The dead giveaway is the 19kHz peak from the FM stereo multiplex carrier. Still, at lease they left the evidence rather than hard filtering it, I suppose.

[cloughie]

Yes but perhaps one might ask whether the prices are too low as much as we appreciate them .

I think if you price index against the price of a full price LP at the time CDs first came on the market the answer is undoubtedly yes. CDs at that time were a new product but to my mind overpriced and therefore not the price we should index against. The current situation is a very confused one and maybe the fairly rapid increase in price of Naxos CDs over the last couple of years goes some way to show the real costs. EMI and other majors are selling at very good prices to the consumer but this may be dictated by a market in which downloads are predicted as the next permanent stage.

[Prommer]

I have only just bought the Furtwangler Bruckner 5 with the BPO in 1942. Wowser. (To use a musical term.)