I’ll be very interested to hear your opinion of the vinyl reissue.
The mono Callas CD I have is in fairly archaic sound - my LP set isn’t Sabatini as I thought but this one:
Playing it right now. Good.
Playing it right now. Good.
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Hello, Stevie. That version of ‘Tosca’ was a 1962(ish) stereo remake of Callas’s 1953 mono set conducted by Victor de Sabata, a picture of which you posted above. (I think that you meant to say ‘de Sabata’ - the only Sabatini that I know of was a (female) tennis player!
In the late 1950s/early 1960s, record companies were rushing to release stereo records because mono was seen as ‘old hat’.
But, very sadly in Maria Callas’s case, by the time of the stereo remake, her wonderful soprano voice was almost completely gone. On top of that, her personal life had taken a bad turn, as her partner (fellow Greek Aristotle Onassis) had dumped her for Jackie Kennedy.
In the 1960s, French conductor Georges Prêtre tried to help Callas re-train her voice and, as well as this re-remake of ‘Tosca’, he recorded a number of solo LPs (four?), accompanying her on the piano. She was living by herself in an apartment in Paris, but was desperately depressed. She never really recovered, she became a recluse, and she died, alone in her Parisian apartment, in 1975.
She became, in effect, one of the tragic heroines that she had portrayed well on stage and on record.
Sabata! Dammit…I keep putting Sabatini.
She sounds damn good to me on the Prêtre set, but I freely admit I’m no expert on opera.
Please don’t get me wrong, Callas was incapable of making a ‘bad’ record, but the earlier mono de Sabata set is simply one of the best recordings (of anything) ever made. Do try to find it, if you can - you will not be disappointed!
I have it - but on CD:
That’s why I’ll be interested to read your thoughts on the LP reissue/remaster.
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What a fabulous group of Puccini/Callas recordings, not Jealous… not Jealous at all😂
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There was also the famous British writer Rafael Sabatini (died 1950), author of remarkable adventure novels, some of which have been adapted into films.
That looks fascinating. The kind of book to read, tucked up warm inside with a hot drink, with a (snow)storm raging outside. I shall find a copy forthwith.
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How strange - Petroc Trelawney has just played the ‘Captain Blood’ theme music on Radio 3. It must be synchronicity, or some such.
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If it has Errol Flynn, it must be a corker! And there will usually be maidens in distress, in various states of undress.
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There is a lovely and X -rated story about how when he was playing Robin Hood, the actress playing Maid Marion egged him to the extent that he became somewhat excited , in a pair of green tights.
Filming had to stop whilst he “calmed down”
She must have been a bit of a pr*ck-tease!
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Have you heard the expression, “In like Flynn”?
Very fruitful afternoon at my 2 favourite local charity shops.
Amongst many other nice things were these exceptional condition Operas and box-sets. This little lot were £36 total. 
The Carlos Kleiber Freischutz seems particularly excellent, but all are unusually well cared for. I’m guessing they all came from the same careful owner.
I’ve never heard an Isaac Stern performance that I didn’t like, so very happy to have that set of Concertos, especially his Brahms which I’ve had on CD for decades and always loved.
I got my new copy of the Elgar Violin Concerto Haendel/Boult/LPO on EMI. This is the Testament reissue purchased from Acoustic Sounds. The jacket and labels are perfect facsimiles of the original, as discussed earlier. Playing it now. Sounds great so far. Only the runouts don’t match the original issue.
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Found. Ordered.
£25 in EX condition - certainly looks near mint.
( Photo below isn’t the copy I bought, just a picture I found on the web).
Surprised to see it’s a DMM remaster. Looking forward to comparing the sound to my CD reissue.
I have that exact same recording of the Saints-Saëns piano concerti. Let us know what you think. I haven’t had them on the TT since I bought them used some years ago. I just started them through the deep clean and will play some later or this weekend.
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You’ve struck gold with that '‘Freischūtz’ recording, KJC, which was Carlos Kleiber’s first major label recording, released in 1973. It was followed up with his recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic, which was released in 1975. Not a bad intro to the classical record market!
CK’s only previous release had been a semi-‘bootleg’ recording of Mahler’s ‘Das Lied Von Der Erde’, made off-air with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973. (I have a lo-fi CD of that, released on the Myto label.)
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