Now the deluxe Decca set has arrived, containing the blu-ray disc, and I have been able to compare it sonically with the Esoteric SACD. Toggling back and forth between the two of them, the Vorspiel of Act One of Die Walküre demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of each release. (1) The great strength of the blu-ray is that the new remastering utilized a superior time-clock and the rapid violin work of the first two minutes come across as highly precise music making. All earlier releases were a bit garbled, even the LP. I would say that the Solti blu-ray now exceeds my hitherto favorite of Karajan (on the SHM pressing from Japan) for delivery of those rapid-fire notes with clarity and incisiveness. I should never have doubted that the Vienna strings were just as capable as the Berlin, if not more so. Amazingly, this comes across to a large degree also in the accompanying CDs in the deluxe set. Which just goes to show yet again that the pre-production is just as important as the medium of delivery, if not more so. Unfortunately, the Esoteric team seem to have used the 1997 digital master, though they benefited from the publicity surrounding the work that Decca was doing at the time on forging a new master. Based on that new work, the blu-ray (and even its CD companion) blows away the SACD on clarity of small detail. Just one example: when Siegmund makes his entry and sings for the first time, the producer attempted to convey the fact that he was entering the stage by starting the volume low and cranking it up in the course of his first line of music. On the SACD, as on all previous releases, it sounds like a gimmick. The Solti Ring was criticized at the time of original release for engineering interventions like this. The blu-ray contains the same phenomenon but the effect is quite different, and much more musical. Siegfried's first notes are still more quiet, but possess more bloom, and so the change in volume does not seem to be such a stark contrast. Only with the blu-ray do we finally hear exactly what Culshaw was getting at. (2) The great strength of the SACD is the bloom in the louder passages. The blu-ray audio is PCM stereo. As such it faithfully reproduces the PCM digital source, with glorious effect, but not as glorious as an HD-Master would have done (but then the whole cycle might not have fit on one disc). Although Esoteric sent their 1997 digital master to analogue and then to DSD, the greater elbow room provided by the SACD medium lets the music speak both loud and clear. The SACD has its merits, and if one is listening primarily for the sake of big orchestral tuttis, then the Esoteric release has no apologies to make for itself. It too is glorious. The blu-ray is better on the little details, but the SACD is better on the wide sweeping soundscapes. (3) In conclusion, although the two releases together represent a four-figure investment, I am happy to have both. At the moment I am a little happier with the blu-ray because it is cheaper and based on a better master. I would hate to give up the Esoteric, though, because for the moment it is the only way to hear Solti's Ring in a high-definition format. I am toying with the thought of consolidating the two sets and replacing the Delta CDs with the Esoteric SACDs. Then I can compare them ad infinitum until another, better release comes out on a format perhaps yet to be invented, or the power goes out in the Valhalla of my viewing room.
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