Posted by hjf on March 13, 2006, 18:52:11, in reply to "siegfried 1955 short review"
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Thanks for your short review.
It's my feeling that the dark sound you describe, could also be attributed to the way maestro Keilberth conducts the orchestra, that's to say with dark expression, which suits Siegfried very well of course. The recording itself IMO has a brilliant or clear sound, (for me especially the beginning of Act II is a gem), but there are restrictions - by the way the microphones had to be placed in the pit (f.i. the prelude to Act III, some details in the middle and bottom end are lost) - which are explained in the booklet.
According to the Golden Ring documentary, the Decca Team in Vienna used 12 microphones for the orchestra alone. In that same documentary Solti explains that the sound of the VPO brass section is very broad, not as sharp as say an American orchestra. IMO, it's not the recording of the trumpets that sound especially sharp, but the sound trumpets sections itself, in contrast with, say the VPO.
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