 |
|
 |
|
|
Latest technology brought to bear on this new XR remastering
Notes on the recording: Toscanini's July 1941 Buenos Aires recording of Beethoven's Choral Symphony is well-known - if not notorious - among afficionados of the maestro for two major reasons. Firstly - and perhaps most importantly - for the performance. Here we find a driven, almost savage outpouring of music. The sheer energy of this remarkable concert appears further highlighted by the prominence in this recording of the tympani, though even without this there is an almost wild current of energy running through much of the symphony, and perhaps as a result of this it ranks amongst the all-time favourites of many people's Toscanini Beethoven 9ths. Perhaps it would be even more universally hailed if it were not for the second matter, which is the dismal quality of the original recording. It seems that just about every fault one might hope to avoid is to be found here - lengthy sections of high disc surface noise, both in terms of hiss and crackle; the kind of clicks and scratches forever associated with analogue disc recordings; crosstalk, where we hear a completely different recording 'breaking through' and clearly audible alongside the present recording; peak distortion; a limited frequency range; a poor tonal balance; poor microphone positioning; occasional pitch instability - I could go on... Were it not for the extraordinary nature of the performance, these technical shortcomings would surely rule out the time and effort required to try and resurrect this recording. As it is, several previous attempts to restore it have been attempted, with varying degrees of success; it is my hope and belief that the present remastering has made further and significant inroads into the creation of a truly listenable 1941 Ninth, in which one is not continually distracted and put off by extraneous noises and faults, emerging from the murky depths of a sonic soup. In addition to major corrections to tonal balance, and the usual efforts to reduce surface noise, the restoration process here included a note-by-note removal of intrusive crosstalk, one frequency at a time. This painstaking work (where one of course has to be exceptionally careful not to remove the adjacent frequencies which make up the actual Beethoven recording) required an almost forensic approach, with continual reference to score and other recordings, and has only become feasible in the latter half of the present decade. It is my sincere hope that this, and all the other work carried out in this restoration, will succeed in finding new and enthusiastic listeners to this most remarkable historic document.
Alexander Kipnis Biographical notes from Wikipedia
Alexander Kipnis (Ukrainian: Олександр Кіпнiс) born (February 13, (February 1 Julian calendar) 1891 in Zhytomyr, the capital of the government of Volhynia, in the Russian Empire, (now Ukraine) – died May 14, 1978 in Westport, Connecticut), was an operatic bass of great artistry and vocal endowment. Kipnis became an American citizen in 1931, having married an American and long appeared at the Chicago Opera before making his belated début at the Metropolitan Opera in 1940.
Early life His impoverished family of seven lived in a Jewish ghetto. After his father died, when he was 12, he helped support the family as a carpenter's apprentice and by singing soprano in local synagogues and in Bessarabia (now Moldova) until his voice changed. As a teenager he took part in a Yiddish theatrical group, until he left for employment at a synagogue in Siedlce, Poland. About this time he entered the Warsaw Conservatory at age 19. The conservatory did not require a high-school diploma. His education included the study of the trombone, double bass and conducting. All the while he continued to sing in synagogues. On the recommendation of the choirmaster, he traveled to Berlin and studied voice with Ernst Grenzebach who was also a teacher of Lauritz Melchior, Meta Seinemeyer, and Max Lorenz. At the same time he sang second bass in Monti's Operetta Theater. When the First World War started, Kipnis was interned as an alien in a German holding camp. While singing to himself he was overheard by an army captain whose brother was general manager of the Wiesbaden Opera. Kipnis was released from custody and he was engaged by the Hamburg Opera. He made his operatic debut in 1915, singing three Johann Strauss songs as a "guest" in the party scene of the operetta Die Fledermaus. In 1917, he moved from Hamburg to the Wiesbaden Opera, having gained invaluable stage experience. He sang in more than 300 performances at Wiesbaden until 1922, when he joined the Staatsoper in the German capital of Berlin.
International career The following year Kipnis visited the United States with a touring Wagnerian company. For nine seasons, between 1923 and 1932, he was on the roster of the Civic Opera in Chicago. In 1927, at the Bayreuth Festival, he appeared as Gurnemanz in Richard Wagner's Parsifal under Karl Muck and recorded the Good Friday Music under Siegfried Wagner. (A purported live performance recording in 1933 under Richard Strauss has been generally discounted.) He also appeared at the Salzburg Festival. Kipnis was under contract with the Berlin Opera until 1935, when he was able to break his contract and flee Nazi Germany. He appeared for three seasons as a guest performer with the Vienna State Opera in 1936-1938. Just after the Anschluss he left Europe and settled permanently in the United States. By the time he was finally signed by the Metropolitan in 1940 he had appeared in most of the world's major opera houses. In addition to those European and American venues already mentioned in this article, he was heard at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (in 1927 and 1929-1935) and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1926-1936). Kipnis was regarded throughout the inter-war years as being one of the greatest basses in the world. He was praised for the beauty of his voice and the excellence of his musicianship. As befitted his status, he was invited to appear with the top conductors of his day. They included Ansermet, Barbirolli, Beecham, Leo Blech, Busch, Coates, Elmendorff, Furtwängler, Heger, Karajan, Krips, Kleiber, Klemperer, Knappertsbusch, Koussevitsky, Leinsdorf, Mengelberg, Mitropoulos, Monteux, Muck, Nikisch, Ormandy, Pfitzner, Reiner, Rodziński, Rosbaud, Scherchen, Richard Strauss, Szell, Toscanini, Walter and Weingartner. Kipnis retired from the Met in 1946 and made his last concert appearance in 1951. Since his debut in 1915, he had sung at least 108 roles, often in more than one language, and his performances in opera and oratorio numbered more than 1600. His recordings of lieder by Brahms, Wolf and Schubert are highly prized today, as are his many operatic recordings. (Kipnis made his best records in the 1920s and '30s; recordings from the 1940s show some decline in vocal quality.)
Critical appreciation Among Kipnis' most celebrated roles were the bass parts in operas by Mozart and Wagner, as well as the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and the part of Rocco in Fidelio by Beethoven. In Germany he also was renowned as a Verdi singer. He was a distinguished interpreter of German lieder and Russian songs, too. During the 1920s and '30s, Kipnis' chief bass rivals were the vibrant Italians Ezio Pinza and Tancredi Pasero in the Verdi repertoire, and the black-voiced Norwegian Ivar Andresen in the Wagner repertoire. None of these three rivals could match the breadth of Kipnis' musicianship although their voices were of splendid quality.
Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Kipnis
Further notes on the music: Beethovn Symphony No. 9: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Beethoven) Full orchestral score: http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.9,_Op.125_(Beethoven,_Ludwig_van)
Biographical notes on other musicians on this recording: Judith Hellwig: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Hellwig (French text) Ren Maison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Maison Toscanini: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Toscanini - http://www.toscaninionline.com/
Notes on the 24-bit download: Please see this page for test files and further information regarding this format. Although restoration work is done at a sample rate of 44.1kHz, we have upsampled the final 24-bit master to 48kHz for additional replay compatibility of our FLAC download. Our twenty-four bit FLAC downloads can be replayed in full quality using a standard DVD video player, a DVD writer and an inexpensive piece of PC software - see here for more information about replay from Video DVD discs.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
