# Wagner Opera Box: Solti



## Shady (Sep 29, 2013)

I'm thinking of buying the Wagner Opera Box conducted by Sir George Solti which is currently on sale for a very good price. I've visited many online forums, to no avail, to try and find out which remasterings (if any) are used for the various operas. Someone on Amazon thinks the Ring is the 1997 remastering and the rest are the 2002 24-bit remasters; can anyone confirm this or add any further information. I'm itching to buy the set!

Many thanks
Shady


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Just buy it. Don't worry about remasterings. Solti's operas have always been well mastered on CD.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

if it is best sound quality you want then just buy it. Decca always had the best sound.
even today no recent recording will surpass them. they are all great.
I can't give all the performances such a great review, but for sound quality there are none better.


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## BiggusD (Oct 2, 2013)

Shady said:


> I'm thinking of buying the Wagner Opera Box conducted by Sir George Solti which is currently on sale for a very good price. I've visited many online forums, to no avail, to try and find out which remasterings (if any) are used for the various operas. Someone on Amazon thinks the Ring is the 1997 remastering and the rest are the 2002 24-bit remasters; can anyone confirm this or add any further information. I'm itching to buy the set!
> 
> Many thanks
> Shady


If you are referring to last years huge box with the Blu-Ray disc, then yes it is the best sounding yet.

It is based on the same 1997 original digital master tape which is in 48kHz/24-bit format, but in the last 15 years the sampling rate conversion algorithm has improved as has the 24-bit > 16-bit dithering process.

So while they are based on the same 1997 digital tapes, the newer CDs do sound better than the 1997 CDs.

Furthermore the Blu-Ray audio disc has the original 48/24-bit master tape which sounds better than any CD! And even better than the Esoteric SACDs which are also based on the 1997 master tape.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I don't believe that there s anything wrong with the older mastering of Solti's Ring at all. I did a direct A/B comparison of the first two masterings and they were roughly equal. But he is talking about the set with multiple operas, not just the Ring.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Buy the set. Other than the Tristan every opera in there could be a first choice.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Solti's Meistersinger is absolutely brilliant. And I think his Tristan is. In fact they all rang among my favourites.


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

The Ring is from the '97 remastering, but don't let that stop you, the sound is amazing. You cannot go wrong with this set. Solti was a great Wagner conductor and the Tristan is fantastic - the best on record IMO. GET IT.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

It's not the best, but it's a good place to start.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The Tristan was the recording Solti wasn't happy with himself. "I was too inexperienced" he said. Decca had Karajan at hand. Why on earth Culshaw didn't ask him to conduct is amazing when he was then at the height of his powers.he was conducting it at the opera house at the time with Nilsson.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

the other major drawback to the Tristan set is Fritz Uhl. The only worthy candidate was Windgassen, but he was under contract to DGG. Culshaw was still against WW at this time (see his book Ring Resounding) and remained so for another two years. Windgassen could have been released for the Tristan role, as he ultimately was for the Siegfried recording, moreover, He and Nilsson had been singing it together at Bayreuth since 1957, but Culshaw insisted on Uhl and the set suffered from it.
Add to that the most boring King Marke in recorded history (Arnold Van Mill), and one has two strikes already.
Solti's own admitted inexperience with the opera ( he had not yet conducted it on stage) was strike three.
By the time he was ready to record it again, Nilsson no longer wanted to.
The recording was just too late for Ramon Vinay , who by 1960 had reverted back to being a baritone.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

duplicated post sorry


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Pip said:


> the other major drawback to the Tristan set is Fritz Uhl. The only worthy candidate was Windgassen, but he was under contract to DGG. Culshaw was still against WW at this time (see his book Ring Resounding) and remained so for another two years. Windgassen could have been released for the Tristan role, as he ultimately was for the Siegfried recording, moreover, He and Nilsson had been singing it together at Bayreuth since 1957, but Culshaw insisted on Uhl and the set suffered from it.
> Add to that the most boring King Marke in recorded history (Arnold Van Mill), and one has two strikes already.
> Solti's own admitted inexperience with the opera ( he had not yet conducted it on stage) was strike three.
> By the time he was ready to record it again, Nilsson no longer wanted to.
> The recording was just too late for Ramon Vinay , who by 1960 had reverted back to being a baritone.


In fairness to Culshaw, it must be said that he was under pressure from Nilsson to record Tristan. He wanted to wait till Windgassen's contract with DG had expired so he could sing Tristan. But Nilsson, who did not trust record companies, insisted on going ahead straight away so Uhl was the best they could come up with. Amazing though how he could choose Solti to conduct such a score at that stage in his career when he had never conducted it on stage. Also HvK was not pleased so insisted on recording some Haydn symphonies at the same time so the whole studio had to be rearranged. Mind you, critics went wild over the Tristan when it appeared, which is perhaps an indication of how little they actually know!


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Yes DavidA ,Nilsson really gave Decca a hard time then, she completely screwed up the Ring recording sequence by recording Walkure for RCA, thereby forcing Decca to jump over and go straight to Siegfried. We lost Hotter's Wotan from that scheduled Walkure , by the time he did it in 1966, the voice was no longer what it was.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I believe Solti was planning to re-record Tristan with Jessye Norman, then he died. That would have been amazing.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Couchie said:


> I believe Solti was planning to re-record Tristan with Jessye Norman, then he died. That would have been amazing.


He says in his autobiography that he wanted to do it again as he had done Mastersingers.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Pip said:


> Yes DavidA ,Nilsson really gave Decca a hard time then, she completely screwed up the Ring recording sequence by recording Walkure for RCA, thereby forcing Decca to jump over and go straight to Siegfried. We lost Hotter's Wotan from that scheduled Walkure , by the time he did it in 1966, the voice was no longer what it was.


Mind you, Hotter was in pretty poor voice for the first part of Siegfried.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

DavidA said:


> Mind you, Hotter was in pretty poor voice for the first part of Siegfried.


They never could work out the schedules to avoid Hotter's hay fever time unfortunately.
I saw his very last Covent Garden performance in Das Rheingold in September 1967, he sang pretty well, but cancelled the next night's Walkure and never sang at CG again. That was a Ring cycle for the record book. As I said hotter cancelled and Herbert Fliether flew in from Hamburg, arriving at the theatre as Act one was ending. there was along interval, but he sang magnificently.
Hotter was so indisposed that he cancelled his Wanderer in Siegfried, but Fliether was booked to sing in Hamburg(his home house) on the same night. CG could find no other replacement, David Ward was in Argentina at the Colon, so we arrived two nights later to see Siegfried, with no idea who would sing, and what we got was Götterdämmerung instead. Heather Harper singing Gutrune, had to leave after Act one because she was already booked that night for a concert at the RFH. One of the Rhiemaidens took over as Gutrune. However, all went well and we came back two nights later and the Cycle finished with Siegfried, with Herbert Fliether flying in again from Hamburg and the performance was great. that cycle was conducted by one of the greatest unsung Wagner conductors of the post war era. It really was that good. Edward Downes. 
The Walkure exists on a "Melodram" CD issue. Unusual cast for CG. Kozub, Bjoner, Langdon, Dvorakova, Fliether.
It is certainly worth tracking down.


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

I LOVE the Solti Tristan. I think it's the best conducting, orchestra and Isolde in record. The Tristan is ok. But that, I accept.


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