CD Decca Puccini - Tosca ( Karajan - Price, Di Stefano ) CD + BluRay Audio

inregistrare din 1962
editia 2014

Interpreteaza:

Leontyne Price - Floria Tosca
Giuseppe di Stefano - Mario Cavaradossi
Giuseppe Taddei - Scarpia
Carlo Cava - Cesare Angelotti
Fernando Corena - Il sagrestano
Piero de Palma - Spoletta

Wiener Philharmoniker ( dirijor Herbert von Karajan )

Presented on 2CDs + High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray disc containing the complete opera in 24-Bit audio.

Remastered in ultra-high quality 96kHz/24-bit audio at Abbey Road Studios in 2014 under the supervision of long-term Decca balance engineer Philip Siney.


The first chords lift you right out of your seat. This is Tosca for the Imax screen, no holds barred. Karajan, and the resplendent Vienna Philharmonic, hurl those chords out of the loudspeakers, and from that moment his hold never falters. Has anyone ever lavished such care, sensuality and physical power on this score? And has any orchestra ever played it as wonderfully as the Vienna Philharmonic? Every detail of Puccini’s Technicolor orchestration is there to marvel at. And theatricality too. Listen to the way Karajan builds the Te Deum at the end of Act I, abetted by John Culshaw’s vivid production: you can smell the incense. Price is a refulgent Tosca, glorious of voice, Di Stefano a wonderfully open-voiced and surprisingly subtle Cavaradossi, and Taddei a compellingly evil Scarpia. For sheer white-hot drama, the mono Callas/De Sabata set remains a classic. But in its different way, and in still-spectacular sound, this is just as overwhelming. A ‘legend’ indeed. Adam Gatehouse

Opera Today :
Of course, for studio recordings of Tosca, the appellation "benchmark" invariably goes to the early 50s set with Callas, di Stefano in his prime, and Gobbi under Victor de Sabata. But greatness in recordings need not be a zero-sum game - and this Decca set very much has its own strengths. Your reviewer can't say one set is better than the other - they are both tremendous.

Callas, of course, portrays a Tosca on the edge - as fierce in her love for Cavaradossi as she is passionate in her desperation before Scarpia. With Price, one has a Floria whose incomparable tonal beauty in act one tilts the drama, effectively, toward the perspective of a tragically doomed love affair. When she sings of the little house she wants to share with Cavaradossi, Price's security and creaminess have no equal; the sense of an erotic idyll conveyed here haunts the memory when much later Cavaradossi in despair also recalls their meetings. Similarly, "Vissi d'arte" does not get pulled and huffed to underline the drama of the moment - Price understands that the music can speak for itself. Her performance has no rivals for sheer gorgeousness.

Di Stefano had come through some rough years by 1963, and he responds to Karajan's confidence in him by providing one final great performance. Yes, the freshness that marks his performance 10 years earlier has gone. In its place a new depth, a rough-edged heroism appears. From the second act onward, at any rate, Cavaradossi is a man who has been tortured and faces death. A little hoarseness should be expected. The core quality of di Stefano's great instrument still comes through.

And what a Scarpia this set has - Giuseppe Taddei, in total command of every vocal aspect of the role, and riding the creepy slow-pace Karajan sets for the "Te deum" section with ominous power. As with the comparison of Price to Callas, we have with Taddei, as opposed to the undeniably great Tito Gobbi on the earlier set, a singer who lets his impeccable performance of the music itself provide the drama. From wicked enjoyment in his own cruelty to the silky murmurings of a smooth seducer, Taddei's Scarpia finds all the characterization necessary in the glory of Puccini's writing.

The Vienna Philharmonic roars and purrs under Karajan's leadership like a barely domesticated lion. As is not unknown with Karajan, a sense of manipulation lies just behind the amazing display of conducting craftsmanship, but why fight the maestro? Give in.

Whether those who already own this set need the remastering must be a personal decision. But for lovers of this opera who do not know this recording - get it. It makes its own case for greatness, all comparisons aside.

Chris Mullins