First, let’s get the old joke out of the way about your
being able to tell a true, dyed-in-the-wool audiophile because he only listens
to the introductory fanfare (“Sunrise”) of Zarathustra.
Think 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Next, let’s consider the performance. In 1954 conductor
Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony made their first recording of Zarathustra in stereo for RCA. It became
one of the earliest commercially available stereo recordings ever produced (and
the earliest stereo recording of Zarathustra,
period). Eight years later, in 1962, RCA audio engineers figured they had
advanced the art of stereo recording enough that they asked Reiner to re-record
the piece, which we have here. Subsequently, RCA released both the 1954 and
1962 recordings to CD in their “Living Stereo” series, and I was lucky enough
to have both recordings on hand (the ’62 version on a JVC XRCD) for comparison.
The thing is, when Reiner made the ‘62 recording, he was
in ill health, resigning from the orchestra shortly afterwards and dying the
following year. His health issues may explain in part why critics for the past
fifty years have pretty much agreed that this later recording was not quite as
spontaneous, animated, or tension-filled as the earlier one. Indeed, the ’54
recording has withstood the test of time remarkably well, becoming a genuine
classic, and there really hasn’t been anything to come along since to surpass
it. Certainly not Reiner’s ’62 performance, which, by the way, is still quite
good. What’s more, the ’54 recording’s audio quality holds its own as well, and
in some people’s estimation still sounds better than the ‘62 one we have here.
In any case, it’s the later recording HDTT remastered, so I was anxious to give
it a listen.
A little more background: German composer and conductor
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) wrote his tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus
Spake Zarathustra) in 1896, inspired by a philosophical novel by the German
philosopher and poet Friedrich Nietzsche. Strauss divided the music into nine
sections, naming the sections after various chapters of the book: “Sunrise,”
“Of the Inhabitants of the Unseen World,” “Of the Great Longing,” “Of Joys and
Passions,” “The Grave Song,” “Of Science and Learning,” “The Convalescent,”
“The Dance-Song,” and “The Night-Wanderer’s Song.”
It’s probably best not to put too much stock in the
literal meaning of each of these sections but to enjoy them for their
figurative spirit. In fact, Strauss himself, criticized at the time for trying
to put Nietzsche’s philosophy into music said, “I did not intend to write
philosophical music, or to portray in music Nietzsche’s great work. I meant to
convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its
origin, through the various phases of its evolution, religious and scientific,
up to Nietzsche’s idea of the superman. The whole symphonic poem is intended as
my homage to the genius of Nietzsche, which found its greatest exemplification
in his book, Thus Spake Zarathustra.”
Listeners could always expect fine interpretations from
Reiner, and I can’t think of a stereo recording he made with the CSO between
1954 and 1962 that didn’t thrill critics and audiences alike. It seems a little
unfair that in ‘62 fans expected him to outdo his own ‘54 Zarathustra, since practically no one has done so to this day.
Nevertheless, Reiner’s ‘62 performance remains vital, its vision still grand,
noble, and eloquent. A simple glance at the timings for the work (about
thirty-two minutes in ‘54 and thirty-four minutes in ’62) shows us that the
conductor had slowed down a bit with the years and was taking things at a
slightly more leisurely pace. This had the advantage, however, in producing a
warmer, richer tone, which is especially telling in the final moments of the
piece. It’s one of the most-affecting “Night-Wanderer’s Songs” you’ll find
anywhere.
The companion music on the disc is Strauss’s early Burleske in D for Piano and Orchestra,
with Byron Janis, recorded in 1957. Mr. Janis remains one of America’s
preeminent pianists, and his performance of the Burleske remains one of the best you’ll find.
RCA producer Richard Mohr and engineer Lewis Layton
recorded the music in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, in April and May of 1962. The
folks at RCA say in their original liner notes that they used six overall
microphones for the occasion to capture the full impact of the 109-man
orchestra. HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) remastered Zarathustra from an RCA 4-track tape
(and the Burleske from an RCA LP) and
then transferred it to HQCD. I put the HDTT disc into one CD player and the
audiophile edition JVC XRCD of it remastered from the original master tape into
another player and listened to them side-by-side, changing them out of each
player from time to time to ensure fairness.
The chief difference I noticed within moments of Zarathustra was that the HDTT disc had a
better left-to-right stereo spread than the JVC disc, the JVC for some odd
reason favoring the left side of the stage. The HDTT, by contrast, distributed
the instruments far more evenly and more realistically across the sound stage.
Then I noted a marginally greater degree of clarity from the HDTT disc, while
the JVC seemed to produce a greater degree of smoothness, although these
qualities appeared to vary a tad as the comparison went on. Both discs
displayed about an equal amount of roughness in the strings, no doubt a
characteristic of the master tape, but for that matter the roughness was almost
too small to care about. In addition, I heard a minimal level of background
noise from both discs, with the effect perhaps heightened at times by the
increased transparency of the HDTT. Bass was robust on both discs, and
spaciousness and dynamics as well, but I’d give a small edge here to the HDTT.
Perhaps some day HDTT will favor us with a remastering of
Reiner’s 1954 recording of the work. “‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be
wished.”
HDTT remastered the Burleske
from a 1957 RCA LP, and I actually found its sound a touch more pleasing than
the Zarathustra. It seemed quieter
and softer, with a warm, added glow. It’s quite nice, and even if the music
itself is nowhere near as impressive as Zarathustra,
it makes a welcome coupling.
For further information about HDTT discs and downloads,
you can check out their Web site at
http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php.
JJP
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