Richard,

Second your endorsement of the Butterfly, I had it on yesterday for most of Act 1 and the voices, particularly the balance of them wrt to the orchestra, is so ideal. Decca microphone handling captured a great performance and we now can enjoy it as if its direct from source.

The Solti Elektra I sampled the final track - massive presence and power yet Nilsson's voice soars supreme above the din. It made me recall how some coners said Solti was overpowered, overdriven, but it still sounds amazing.

The Ansermet La Mer was more revelatory for me. This is an early stereo recording from 1957 ! Yet in this format it sounds as good as all FLAC recordings (Abbado, Baremboim, Karajan, Dutoit) and in fact is better. The detail, tactile presence of instruments, the depth of the bass notes. Wow. It goes on my list of demo recordings (alongside Rostro Don Q).

I'm very dependent on your useful updates to look for what is out there in the classical space, so thanks for doing us all the service of hunting them down.

Best /bt

Last edited by BengTi; 2017-09-27 05:27.