Pearl+marston

Enrico Caruso - The Complete Electrical Re-Creations (1993) {2CD Set, Pearl GEMM CDS 9030}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 388 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 314 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 28 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1993 Pearl | GEMM CDS 9030
Classical / Opera / Historical

This is an interesting and often enjoyable re-recording set of which possibly the most convincing example is the Inspirez-moi from Gounod's La Reine de Saba originally recorded in 1916. The process of replacing the acoustically recorded accompaniments with electrically recorded ones to provide a more "modern" sound must have been a labour of great painstaking; the generally good results are tributes to the care and perseverance of musicians and engineers alike. It is most fascinating to compare these recordings from 1927 through 1939 with the digitally recorded ones of the past few years. Perhaps surprisingly, the later recordings are not always the most convincing when there are duplications.

Rosa Ponselle - The Columbia Acoustic Recordings (1992) {2CD Set Pearl GEMM CDS 9964 rec 1918-1923}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 444 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 377 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1918-23, 1992 Pearl / Pavilion Records | GEMM CDS 9964
Classical / Vocal / Opera / Historical

Those early Ponselle records have unique qualities. She was at the age of the characters she was portraying, in her impulsiveness (incredibly controlled by technique and taste) singing every note and emotion with the freshness of youth in life's spring. This with the most glorious voice that ever came from any woman's throat in the Italian repertory, with a precocious sense of line, style, and emotional honesty…

It’s a measure of the paucity of recordings of the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio – itself a direct result of their deliberately limited repertoire – that this latest release in Naxos’s series has only one performance by the Trio itself. This all-Beethoven affair presents the Archduke Trio, supported by Thibaud and Cortot’s Kreutzer and the only recording ever made by Casals and Cortot as a duo, the Mozart Variations.