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Esoteric Japan will release a SACD box set of Karajan & Callas 4 Great Operas on December 15, 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Esoteric brand:
ESSE-90072~80 (9 Discs) Karajan & Callas 4 Great Operas - Salome / Aida / Carmen / Tosca (EMI Classics)
Limited edition (1,500 sets)
ESSE-90072 & 73 (Discs 1 & 2)
R. Strauss: Salome - Hildegard Behrens / Wiener Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan (1977, 1978)
ESSE-90074, 75 & 76 (Discs 3, 4 & 5)
Verdi: Aida - Mirella Freni / Wiener Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan (1979)
ESSE-90077 & 78 (Discs 6 & 7)
Bizet: Carmen - Maria Callas / Orchestre du Théâtre National de l'Opéra / Georges Prêtre (1964)
ESSE-90079 & 80 (Discs 8 & 9)
Puccini: Tosca - Maria Callas / L'Orchestre la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire / Georges Prêtre (1964, 1965)
http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/esse90072/indexe.html
The price is JPY27,000 (ca. USD329).
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Post by seth November 30, 2012 (2 of 11)
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SACD Hunter said:
Esoteric Japan will release a SACD box set of Callas 4 Great Operas on December 15, 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Esoteric brand:
ESSE-90072~80 (9 Discs) Karajan & Callas 4 Great Operas - Salome / Aida / Carmen / Tosca (EMI Classics)
Limited edition (1,500 sets)
ESSE-90072 & 73 (Discs 1 & 2)
R. Strauss: Salome - Maria Callas / Wiener Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan (1977, 1978)
ESSE-90074, 75 & 76 (Discs 3, 4 & 5)
Verdi: Aida - Maria Callas / Wiener Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan (1979)
These must be new, unearthed recordings that Callas made from beyond the grave. I guess she literally trascended death.
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And this is what it looks like.
(Picture linked from article on Phileweb)
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Post by lennyw November 30, 2012 (4 of 11)
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I am totally confused. The box says Callas Karajan, but two of them are with Pretre, and I don't remember Callas recording Salome...
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Post by seth November 30, 2012 (5 of 11)
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lennyw said:
I am totally confused. The box says Callas Karajan, but two of them are with Pretre, and I don't remember Callas recording Salome...
She's not in the Karajan recordings -- she was dead at the time they were made.
The title of the box is highly misleading given that it features none of the recordings that both artists appear in. The only commonality is that all four recordings are operas.
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Post by lennyw November 30, 2012 (6 of 11)
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It almost reminds me of those poorly translated manuals one gets with cheapo Chinese-brand DVD players...
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Post by hiredfox November 30, 2012 (7 of 11)
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One cannot but wonder what goes in in the minds of the recording people at EMI & Teac? On the one hand EMI are busy turning all their old analogue tapes into SACD on the other Esoteric are busy doing their own thing with old selected EMI tapes....
There seems to be no co-ordination at all. Presumably they have had the odd conversation about duplication and different recording standards? Come on chaps, one or the other of you and get the job done properly once rather than badly twice.
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Post by seth November 30, 2012 (8 of 11)
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hiredfox said:
One cannot but wonder what goes in in the minds of the recording people at EMI & Teac? On the one hand EMI are busy turning all their old analogue tapes into SACD on the other Esoteric are busy doing their own thing with old selected EMI tapes....
There seems to be no co-ordination at all. Presumably they have had the odd conversation about duplication and different recording standards? Come on chaps, one or the other of you and get the job done properly once rather than badly twice.
Of course there is no coordination -- they're independent companies. EMI licenses their recordings pretty much to whoever is willing to pay money, such as Brilliant and Newton. It's easy profit.
EMI probably isn't concerned about duplication because Esoteric does very limited runs. In fact, I bet that the license caps how many SACDs Esoteric is allowed to issue so if EMI releases their own SACD version of a recording a year or so later, their release won't compete with Esoteric's -- all of Esoteric's inventory will have been sold by that point.
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Post by lennyw November 30, 2012 (9 of 11)
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The concept of limited runs has existed in Japan for some time, predominantly the case in my experience with regards to historical recordings from the former USSR, for example the series on pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky, all of which were on 2000 copy runs. Companies like DENON and TRITON were at the forefront of this. Some reappeared reissued (probably the best sellers), while others disappeared (the two "Early Recordings" volumes for some reason sold out within 2 months, but were not re-issued). They also released a fabulous Neuhaus boxed-set with 11CDs. Managed to get one, despite the then horrendous £219 (aah the joys of working at Tower). Anyway, the recordings were indeed licensed for limited runs, which I'm sure made it reasonably cost effective, though as with all these things, the time spent (hopefully) transferring and remastering must have been hard to recoup.
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Post by toddao November 30, 2012 (10 of 11)
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A very tempting set with the usual drawbacks for those other than in Japan.
I seem to recall the Aida was a quad recording though I guess Esoteric will give us only stereo.
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