The Least Important Recording Projects Ever (No. 11): Warner's Latest Maria Callas Megabox
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- čas přidán 23. 09. 2023
- We've seen it all before, and here it is again: the studio stuff, the live stuff, the recitals, the Juilliard masterclasses, interviews and ephemera, all boxed up and comprising 135 CDs and other doodads. Oh yes, and it's a limited edition of 3000 copies. Have fun!
- Hudba
I reviewed this huge Callas set for American Record Guide. It does NOT include the conversation with Edward Downes nor the two DVDs of lengthy interviews with Lord Harewood that EMI released about two decades ago. It does include a new disc of unreleased studio working sessions that features arias never released commercially or even completed. While it's fascinating to hear Callas work with her colleagues, listeners should be aware that none of the arias are heard complete.
To sum up: if you're just starting your CD library this is a great place to start. If you already have some of the other Callas complete sets, you don't need this one.
Keep up the great work, Dave! I love your channel!
Wow, that NFT came out of left field. I actually let out an audible, “What?!?”. I would have never guessed that someone actually made a Maria Callas NFT, and just typing that made me cringe. What a rollercoaster of emotions this seemingly routine video ended up being.
Well, when the box was being created in 2021/22 they were certainly all the rage. But, the market did not last long.
Great summary. I love Callas and have the red box and the live box. Like the work of Karajan, Bernstein, and Gould her work sells, and it will be repackaged until it doesn't.
I think we need to differentiate between Recording Project and Marketing Project.
I see your point and I agree, the record companies are going crazy with physical products to squeeze every penny out of their catalog while there is still time.
For me, it's purely marketing. From a recording point of view, having this catalog remastered, especially for the studio content, is certainly a great accomplishment.
Personally, as a collector, I am happy to have a complete Callas collection. However, is this Mega Giga Big Box are the correct medium ?
Labels tend to make budget boxes and i don't get it since, in my point of view, reel collectors are the one who buy these kind of objects.
And collectors will probably invest money to have a well-curated product of artists they love.
In my opinion, Mega Giga boxes are difficult to handle. I would prefer, and I am ready to pay a lot more for it, smaller boxes with this remastered material by composer (Callas Verdi, Callas Puccini, etc) with, and it's very important, all the texts. At least some added value compared to streaming. Otherwise what's the point of having a physical product?
You have already highlighted it in one of your videos, A project like the Hyperion Schubert's Complete Songs is exactly that.
If I remember correctly, it wasn't cheap, but the content worth every penny.
I hope my point is clear enough. My written English skills are quite poor.
I can't agree with you more with the text. The text booklets came with old opera CDs are so valuable now. The music itself is easy to find online, but the content of those text booklets are nowhere to find.
I love Maria Callas. She is unique and undeniably one of the greats but there are OTHER very talented and accomplished sopranos. Sometimes I get fed up of her omnipotence in the operatic world.
Last year was Tebaldi's centennial year, but evidently, Decca doesn't give a damn.
Admittedly, my Callas collection is very small, but I like what I have. Tosca on EMI cassettes, purchased from a cutout bin, still sounds fine to me, and perhaps I’ve imprinted on it, but it’s always my “go to” version. Also, her Medea on MHS LPs and also on Mercury open reels. Sounds good to me, and I get a bonus of a young, fresh-voiced Renata Scotto. I may have a Carmen lying around here somewhere, but I can’t remember.
Neat story about that Tosca on cassettes….The libretto was incomplete. I wrote a letter (remember those?) to EMI in London, and?……they actually sent me a new libretto!!!!!!
So I was 18 yrs old when I heard Callas live and in person on her world tour with Di Stefano in Los Angeles. Hearing and watching her emote was incredible. We in the
audience couldn’t care less if she bungled a few notes. To be in the aura of a living legend was enough, I will remember that afternoon forever.
NFTs work as such:
I tell you I'm a cloud salesman, and have stand with pictures of clouds, each with a random number. If you give me money to "buy" a cloud, I make you a receipt, tie it with a picture of a cloud, and write it down in my book. Then I give you the receipt with the picture saying: "this cloud is now yours and yours only. Anyone who doubts it can check it out on my book."
The receipt is the NFT, the picture is a digital file, my book is the blockchain and the clouds are anything at all. Also worth mentioning is that anyone with a camera can point it at the sky and take a picture of the cloud you supposedly "own" for absolutely free.
It's a scam; that's why its market crashed. There's never been any value in it whatsoever.
Take care, Dave!
Thanks! That's helpful.
This is mindboggling. What can one say?
A friend of mine made roughly $70k selling an NFT that is now worthless, lucky sod. Thanks for this video, I found it one of your funniest yet.
I am reminded of the new "complete" James Bond boxes that come out with every new film. Don't those of us who care have it already? Can the new packaging justify the duplications?
The “Callas Edition” stuff is the second round of CD issues. There are earlier CD issues from the 80’s. I don’t know how many of the operas were issued on CD in the first wave, but Callas Edition is definitely the second round.
All the first wave of “Callas edition” stuff is 1995-1999 I think with the black boxes as the first emi studio recordings. The Blues are live or the second studio recording, like the stereo Norma with Corelli/Ludwig and the stereo Tosca from Paris.
The big remastering from 3-5 years ago really should have been definitive….shrug.
Right you are!
@@DavesClassicalGuide I went through my callas phase and then I grew up.
Speaking of stuff that could classified under this category solely because it’s more Bruckner, have you gotten the new Concertgebouw Bruckner box of reissued live performances? Some of the conductors seem like good choices for the symphonies (Mehta 8, Jochum 5, Tennstedt 4) but seems unnecessary…i just came across it on Spotify the other day.
I listened to the 8th with Mehta and my wife said “what is this? it’s kind of pretty” and 15 minutes later said “I’m usually bored by now but I’m not”…..
That’s probably the highest praise Bruckner has ever gotten?
You are right about this. And those first round editions where also boxed, without the stereo Tosca and Norma, without Medea, which where then issued separately. Medea in appalling sound, by the way. What bothered me later too is that EMI decided for us which recordings were going and which not so good, so the above mentioned, plus some live recordings went into the "blue" collection. I must say that the red Warner box is magnificent; some recordings sound new to me, like I Pagliacci, on which they really did some great remastering. Thanks for your comments!
Thank for this Dave! By the way, the red box also has a leaflet that doesn't fit in, very annoying. The cheap edition you mentioned, is such an ugly thing that I returned it to the shop. Thank you for calling a cat a cat (as the French say) : the bullshit book 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 so true!
Dave great talk as always. It's always so much fun to hear you beat up on what needs to be beat up on. (entertaining, too) One question: are there some "Least Important Recording Projects Ever" that are so bad that they aren't in your collection? I'd love to hear about a few of them (if they exist).
I'll have to think about that!
I have the other boxes (the last one with EMI and the red one from Warner)... the frustrating part is obviously (like any Callas fan) I want the unpublished tests (CD 131 I guess) and rehearsals. So I hope that will eventually be made available as a standalone release either digitally or on CD. Other than that - no way am I investing into yet another box of the things I already have.
There is much more unpublished takes - at least five hours worth from 1969. e
@@jaykauffman4775 those from 1969 I do have, yes over 4 hours worth of material. They have been around private collectors for a while. The ones they are releasing now are the ones I’ve never encountered including the Bolena one previously considered lost. So I am obviously anxious to get to hear them… one day.
@@VasiliyKomendant they are from early 60s sessions on one cd
@@jaykauffman4775 exactly, 60/61. That's exactly what I'm saying - there's no way I'm buying 135 discs of which 134 I already have, to get just that one I want...
I have been a devoted Callas fan since high school and began buying the first CD versions when they came out in order to replace my LPs which became badly worn due to constant playing. I do have the Red Box collection. Like another one that commented, Walter Legge was really shortsighted when deciding what roles Callas would record. Why in Hell did he decide to record Callas in roles that she never performed on stage such as La Boheme and Manon Lescaut? And not to have a studio recording of some of her most famous roles such as La Traviata, Macbeth and Anna Bolena was such a crime. Yes, there is a studio recital disk of excerpts from Macbeth and Anna Bolena but that is small compensation.
I agree, but the LP industry was basically just starting out, and he was thinking like a businessman and trying to sell records. Puccini sold, whereas much of her repertory was actually not popular repertory. My understanding is that her record in Turco in Italia did not sell well and that that foreclosed his interest in exploring less mainstream Italian works. He was even happy to let her record Medea with Ricordi, and Medea was obviously one of her greatest roles. Things would have been very different had she been 10 years younger.
Well at the very least...you've done your strength and cardio exercises for the day by going through these boxes!!!
Storage unit needed for all the Calls releases and reissues.
I'm not a big opera buff and I have no Callas recordings at all, but thanks for the video!
Only because it’s all been available for years. Only ONE CD hasn’t been issued before.
This video has brought out my Callas nerd side.... Actually the black/blue 'Callas Edition' (2:15) was (I believe) the second wave of Callas EMI CDs, and came out in the mid-late 1990s. The Callas experts believe (and I agree with them here) that the Callas Edition was generally significantly worse than the first wave of Callas EMI CDs, which came out beginning in the 1980s. Those first wave CDs had colour covers -- of course, of her face. There is disagreement among the Callas experts regarding whether the CDs that were part of this first wave are better or worse than the mid-1010s Warner deluxe release. I do think there are significant variations of quality among these different waves, but of course you have to already be a Callas person to actually care. But my question is how many years it'll be before the next Callas box set beyond this latest one is released. My guess is five years tops.
That is true, but the first wave was not an "edition," if I recall. It was, as you suggest, a set of individual opera recordings that did not aspire to any form of completeness.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Ah I see. That is true. I think they did have a sort of common style, however. Regardless, it’s amazing how much EMI/Warner has milked her legacy. Thanks also for the Gluck shout out. I completely agree. But Walter Legge would’ve never ever even considered those operas.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Actually there was a huge box of the 1st wave CDs which were recorded with the forces of La Scala, it was named "Callas alla Scala"and contained 37 CDs in total in their original packaging with librettos and slipcases. The sound of the 1st wave is better than the 90s 2nd wave (the black boxes) but the sound of the "Maria Callas Remastered - The Complete Studio Recordings" is the best by far and is worth its money even if you own the 1st or 2nd wave completely. I will pass on "La Divinain all her roles" box and will light a candle on the 2nd of December instead. I enjoyed this video very much,thank you!
But . . . but . . . I have hardly any of that stuff already. Some of it I've downloaded from CZcams in terrible quality. This seemed like a great way to instantly repair the deficit in my music collection, so I bought it (don't yet know my number).
Facebook is now advertising a new set from Germany
I like Callas and I have several of her recordings,but I would never spend money on this set.
Dave, this set could have justified inclusion in your "Stupid box set" series just as much as in "The least important recording projects ever". Callas was a remarkable artist whose sheer musicality together with outstanding vocal and stage acting ability at her prime more than overrode IMHO some vocal imperfections. So, recording as much of her repertoire as possible was a necessary undertaking and justified perhaps one box. However, the multiple reissues of more or less complete box sets is stupid. Has anyone done any research into who buys these mega performer boxes? From where I am situated having a collection built up over six decades, they are mostly of little interest as they imply so much duplication. What is worse is that individual performances in which I am interested are only available in these boxes and rarely separately.
OMG you have all this boxes, give me one of 😂 i have no money to by 😢
A general question: I am facing a problem in listening to Classical music. There is a lot of music that I know nothing about, but most of the time, I find myself only listening to music that I am more familiar with. I mean unconsciously it is easier for me to listen to a Beethoven or Brahms symphony for the thousandth time than pick a Schnittke, Martinu, or Szymanowski. So there is a huge part of the repertoire that I am always skipping. Have you ever had this issue in your journey? What solution do you suggest? Should I come up with a schedule to make sure I will cover everything?
WOW!!! What an unbelievable mess.
But we do love her 👍
Why stop with an NFT? Warner should have created its own cryptocurrency (the “Divina”) and made it the only way to purchase the box. In honor of her death year, I would have set the price at 1,977 Divinas.
By now I am really puzzled about what a "Recording project" means for the purposes of this talk. The way I would see it, this is a publishing / posh packaging project. The recordings themselves are the same historic(al) stuff, and certain of them hugely important. I do not believe they lose in importance through re-releases, it is just that the potential audience interested in acquiring a thing like this probably becomes smaller. So while I would absolutely agree with the assessment of the BOX (release), shouldn't this review be titled differently?
(I remember getting into similar discussion regarding the grand Philips Mozart compendium - where some held the opinion that it was important in its time as a well-curated release, while the recordings were mostly done separately, and not as a premeditated project.)
You're thinking about this way too hard.
Bring a rockanroller I enjoy bootleg recordings of live concerts. But yes listrning to bootlegs is an aquired taste. I hope tjat soon ai will be able to recreate this bootleg recordings in better quality
At 14:30 PM I burst out laughing.
I love and learn so much from your videos that I feel very reluctant to make one of my very few comments a somewhat critical one. However I think it is wrong for you to put this review of the Callas comprehensive box into this category of Least Import Recording Projects. Yes, this comprehensive box consists entirely of previously issued materials, but so does every comprehensive box of an an artist who has been dead for 45 years. You have posted dozens, if not hundreds of video reviews, of such big boxes, but don't label them as the least important recording project ever. The contents of this box is nothing like a third recording by Buchbinder of Beethoven sonatas or putting effort to record "unworthy" composers or even a questionably curated Bernstein box. I would argue that the series of EMI studio recordings of Callas are one of the most important recording projects ever. In your discussion of these recordings in your "12 greatest box sets of all time" video you explain why this is so. These are supplemented by live recordings, none of which were recorded professionally by EMI , but were eventually cleaned up and legally issued by EMI decades after they surfaced as bootleg recordings. In this this video you describe these live recordings as being really critical to the Callas legacy. You even identify how sad it is that some of the live roles were not done in studio recordings. How does this all add up to being absolutely the least important recording project ever. I actually find myself in almost total agreement with what you say about the contents of this box. I just wish you had just reviewed the box as you review so many other boxes of previously issued material without the harsh label of the least important recording project of all time. If you wanted to say it is an unnecessary box because the complete studio recordings and the live opera recordings and the live concerts are all easily available individually, OK. But not least important recordinig project of all time.
Your worst ever? I thought that it would Furtwängler Complete warner or Berlin radio box.
No, that isn't what I said at all. I said "least important."
Does Mildred like Maria Callas?
She didn't answer when I asked.
For me, a really great loss is a studio Verdi Macbeth with Callas and Gobbi, c. 1955. Far more important than a Callas Boheme. Walter Legge could be a real pr*ck sometimes.
I assume the transfers here are the same as last time, which means not always so hot.
Yes.
Legge was brilliant but often pigheaded and shortsighted. The red box masters were too loud and bright but better than some of their abysmal EMI predecessors
The live recordings often dont sound good. And are a real trial to listen through, (the blue boxes) etc,
Like I said.
I’ll give Warner credit: They REALLY cleaned up those live recordings. If you have a streaming service, you can compare the before/after in small snippets and they are really as good as you’ll ever hear them.
They are particularly useful for voice students to hear her interpretations live and they’re finally something resembling listenable for that purpose. And for the operas she never did in the studio, they’re finally at a point where you can get the best sense of them.
The Mexico City Aida with the high E flat, you can finally tell that Act 2 of Aida is what’s being sung/played on this latest remaster which wasn’t always the case before until the orchestra came in with the March under her E-flat and the applause.
They’ll never sound good, but this is the best they’ll likely ever make them sound considering the sources.
I assume nothing has been remastered since the last big box (which was I guess the best EMI had done in that regard which isn’t saying much) Why do the Japanese often do so much better??
Because they care about quality and charge a premium for it.
@@DavesClassicalGuide exactly right. Maybe it’s an odd idea today but sometimes you actually have to pay for a quality product
Again Barnum was right!
I think you are missing the real point of that box issue for any Maria Callas' fanatic like me. It may have been a statue or a candella or anything devoted to our deity, we don't care as long as we can own it for that very important centenary year. The fact that I already have everything in it (and still may have to hear some for the first time) doesn't matter, I need to have it.