The Goodall Mastersingers

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've listened to some of it on headphones, and it still sounds like mono to me.

[perfect wagnerite]

It's a while since I listened to it, but IIRC the first act is in stereo, the rest in mono. There is a notable difference in quality between the first act and the rest, so I'd guess they were sourced separately.

[Gordon]

Re Ferret's posting: Just a small point, but although the BBC were rather late in introducing stereo broadcasting, The Zenith GE multiplex had been adopted well before 1968..... I remember buying my first stereo tuner a couple of years later.

I can concur with Ferret on that. I was at the BBC Research dept in the summer of 1966 and one of my jobs among many others was doing quality control listening on boxes full of stereo tapes played on EMI BTR3 stereo recorders specially modified for BBC studio use [the control knobs for instance] and LS5s. There was loads of stuff from the RFH etc and from Maida Vale with the BBCSO. I can't listen to Siegfried's Rhine Journey now without all that coming back to me!! You can be sure that the BBC were capable of recording in stereo at external venues in the late 60s.

I also remember getting a stereo receiver in about 1968/69 [it was a Heathkit assemble yourself job and very good it was too, after I'd tweaked it in the lab] when I had been at work for a year after college. I lived in Wembley and Harrow then and remember stereo broadcasts.

There is a book called "On Air" about BBC transmission and it says that the 1st stereo test transmission was in 1958 from Wrothem using 2 VHF transmitters and was also done using VHF and TV transmitters at weekends and late at night. The Zenith GE was put on trial in 1962 and used for regular transmissions beginning at Wrotham in July 1966. Sutton Coldfield and Holme Moss followed in 1968 and Rowridge IoW in 1971. One of the problems was maintaining the GPO land lines adequately for stereo so the BBC built a network of its own microwave stations using video equipment which fed the transmitters and these links were converted to digital in the mid 70s. BBC research papers from 1967/70 describe the basis of this system.

Off topic a bit I know, but in view of the fuss over DAB take up, you may be interested in this: mono FM started in 1955. It took 10 years to get to 30% take up even though the transmitters were in place all over the country by then. 99% coverage [mono] was said to have been achieved in 1972, 18 years later, but take up was not yet 99%. DAB started in the autumn of 1995 and has 30+% take up - I leave you to do the arithmetic.

Recent planning studies have shown that "robust" FM stereo coverage currently reaches 95% of the population and BBC DAB will reach 94% by the end of this year.

[Chris Newman]

Please allow me to be a nerd for a moment. The wonderful performance database on the Bayreuth website tells me that Bailey played Sachs there in 1969 under Berislav Klobucar, and in 1970 under Hans Wallat. There is no indication that Jaroslav Krombholc ever conducted at Bayreuth. But thank-you, Chris, for causing me to find this touching memoir of JK: http://www.musicweb-international.co.../Krombholc.htm

Hi Tom,
That will teach me to go upstairs and check on the shelf (I never learn ). Mind you both names require some tongue-twisting. Thank you for the quotation about JK. That is lovely even if he was the wrong chap.

By the way here is the link to the Bayreuth recording of Norman Bailey under Klobucar (got it right this time):

http://operadepot.com/members/?page_id=300

bws
Chris.

[Roslynmuse]

I enjoyed the WNO youtube clip, particularly as I saw Goodall conduct Valkyrie in Liverpool in February or March 1984 - exactly the time when these rehearsals were being filmed. I well remember the start of Act I - as a friend said, the energy of the storm music seemed to be the result of Goodall being plugged in to the mains! The visuals were less gripping than the playing and singing - Brunnhilde appeared to be warming herself next to a cosy flame effect electric heater at the end of Act III...

[Roslynmuse]

PS Ansermet conducted the premiere of Lucretia.

[Stunsworth]

It's a while since I listened to it, but IIRC the first act is in stereo, the rest in mono.

I've just played some tracks at random, and it all seems to be genuine stereo.

[Mandryka]

I believe the 'translation' used here dates back to the 19th century. Although inadequate (it could hardly be otherwise) It actually sounds one helluva lot better than some of the things you're liable to hear at ENO these days.

[makropulos]

Mandryka - yes, I think the translation used was by Frederick Jameson, or at least a slightly doctored version of same. It's not at all bad as such things go. As for what you're liable to hear at ENO these days, the standard of diction is such that it's often not a lot ... :)

[Bert Coules]

Frederick Jameson, yes indeed. A prolific translator of Wagner's operas, and a good one: his words "sing well and sound well" (Andrew Porter). Covent Garden's first complete Ring (in 1908) was given in Jameson's version, and it was still in use in the late forties, when - and this would have been something to see! - the Garden mounted an English-language Valkyrie starring Kirsten Flagstad and Hans Hotter, no less.

Jameson was born in 1839 and died in 1916 and was "undoubtedly one of the most accomplished amateur musicians of his time" according to his Musical Times obituary. A great champion both of Wagner and performance in English, he apparently went to every single Bayreuth festival over a span of twenty-five years (tickets presumably being a whole lot easier to get hold of then - happy days).

The Mastersingers text was slightly revised for the Goodall production by Gordon Kember and Norman Feasey and was published by the Wells to accompany the performances. It generally still holds up pretty well, but it would be good to have a more up-to-date one as long as it was sympathetically done: a pity that Porter was never commissioned. One of John Tomlinson's studio recital CDs has a couple of Sachs's monologues in versions written by the singer which work very well: maybe he's the man for the job.

Bert

[Prommer]

Off topic but I hope no one will mind as it it relates to both Goodall and the Proms which are very much on our minds...

Didn't Goodall conduct Act III of Parsifal at the Proms, and was it you 'perfect wagnerite' who said you had it on tape and might share it? I'd adore to have that as I think I remember hearing it on the radio at the time...

[Ferretfancy]

Bert Coules

I was using a stereo tuner well before 1971, although I cannot pin down the date in the 1960s when Zenith GE transmissions began from Wrotham. I attended experimental stereo sessions at the Camden Theatre in 1959, and was at the Albert Hall for another experimental recording of Horenstein's Mahler 8 later that year. The recording is available on Testament. It is perfectly possible that a genuine stereo recording of the Gooddall Mastersingers was made at Sadlers Wells, although the L & R signals would have been sent by GPO music lines to BH, since on site recordings were not available at first. These early recordings used a simple co-incident pair technique and the sound stage was often kept quite narrow to assist mono compatibility, so the results may not have been very convincing.

[Bert Coules]

FF, that's fascinating; thanks. As far as the Chandos release goes, having listened again I'm hard put to it to hear stereo information at any point: if the recording is stereo then, as you say, the image is very narrow.

I keep meaning to upload a sample or two to my PC and check the right and left waveforms with an audio editing program but I haven't got around to it yet. Frankly, I don't really care one way or the other: I'm just grateful to have such a superb performance in such comparatively good sound.

[Chris Newman]

Out of curiosity I am listening to Reggie's Mastersinger Overture at the moment. The first violins sound mostly left. The timps and brass appear to come from the right. There is quite a lot that sounds central rather like on some of the Gibson Sibelius symphony set which Chandos got from Saga records. I imagine it was such narrow stereo in the Wagner that Chandos decided not to say yea nor nay whether it was stereo or mono.

OOH, the Chorus in the following chorale sound dead centre, the organ is on the left, the cellos are on the right and the woodwind are are on the centre left with the oboe rightISH. Ah! There was a cough from the right.

I would swear Remedios is to the right and Curphey is in the middle. Dempsey has entered from the left and moved across the stage.

I THINK it is stereo. Every word is so clear. The music making is wonderful.

[Bert Coules]

I just ran a few random tracks through Cool Edit Pro. The right and left leg waveforms certainly do differ, but you have to look extremely closely to notice it: the amount of stereo separation appears to be pretty minimal and specifically placed voices and sounds are not at all easy to spot. I can't find a way (on my PC at least) of instantly switching the playback setup from stereo to mono and back again, which ought to provide a fairly clear aural clue.

But, as I said above, I'm actually always too busy enjoying the performance to notice the sound.

Every word is so clear.

A lost art, alas...