Documentation of historic performances is an important and admirable endeavor, but not all listeners have the patience to sit through old recordings that have dreadful sound quality, no matter how artistically significant they may be. Certainly Bruno Walter's legendary Mozart performances warrant scholarly attention and careful preservation, but this March 13, 1958, concert recording of the Requiem in D minor will be a hard sell for the average listener, and anyone who wants a clear, clean, and compelling version of this ...
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Documentation of historic performances is an important and admirable endeavor, but not all listeners have the patience to sit through old recordings that have dreadful sound quality, no matter how artistically significant they may be. Certainly Bruno Walter's legendary Mozart performances warrant scholarly attention and careful preservation, but this March 13, 1958, concert recording of the Requiem in D minor will be a hard sell for the average listener, and anyone who wants a clear, clean, and compelling version of this revered work really should look elsewhere. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus are recorded at such a hot level that they overload the single microphone and create distortion in almost every instance where they perform together, even at moderate volume. About the only sections that can be tolerated are the movements for the solo vocalists, such as the Tuba Mirum or the Recordare, where distortion is much less noticeable and the superb voices of soprano Maria Stader, alto Maureen...
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