The Decca was cancelled because of rising costs - and lack of interest.
The Furtwangler because of the conductor's death. Sadly the singing in the Furtwangler Walkure is really not up to scratch - the ladies appear to be not in their best voice and Franz as Wotan is in pretty poor voice. Why on earth didn't they have Hotter who was then at his peak?
About Callas "Traviata":
http://www.arsc-audio.org/journals/v...n2-3p54-63.pdf
"Beecham y EMI: The Rice Hotel memo" (pdf, from pag. 104)
http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2018/5/2_THESISMC4.pdf
a note of a discussion between Sir Thomas and David Bicknell, held at The Rice Hotel in Houston on March 25th 1955, to discuss the repertoire that he would record with EMI from 1956 onwards.
The list produced by Sir Thomas was as follows:
‘* Seasons (Haydn)
* Seraglio (Mozart)
* Mass in C minor (Mozart)
X Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)
Symphonies (Beethoven)
* Schubert A flat Mass
* Messe des Morts (Berlioz)
Prise de Troie (Berlioz)
Trojans (Berlioz)
Solomon, Hercules, Saint Cecilia Ode (Handel)
Pique Dame (Tchaikovsky)
Prince Igor (Borodin)
Iphigenie en Tauride (Gluck)
* Carmen, Fair Maid of Perth (Bizet)
X Manon (Massenet)
Romeo et Juliette (Gounod)
Stabat Mater (Dvorak)
Le Coq d’or (Rimsky-Korsakov)
Creation (Haydn)
Irmelin -Partially financed by Sir Thomas-, Magic Fountain, Koanga (Delius)
X (one of these two groups to be reserved for Angel)
The following complete recordings were made from the repertoire on Beecham’s list: ‘The Seasons’, ‘The Seraglio’, ‘Solomon’, and ‘Carmen’.
Last edited by The Wolf; Sep-07-2017 at 18:14.
According to reports , James Levine was to record Les Troyens in the 80s with the Met orchestra and chorus for DG , but I don't know about the cast . But this was scuttled before it took place .
DG has an incomplete Wozzeck in vaults with the late Carlos Kleiber and the Saatskapelle, Dresden which Kleiber decided to end before completion .
One piece of interesting controversy concerns the delayed recording of Verdi's Un Ballo in Mascara by Decca in which Jphn Culshaw claims he aimed to record Bjorling's Riccardo, which he reckoned to be one of the great performances of that time. Unfortunately because of differences between Bjorling and Solti the recording was postponed and a continued later with Bergonzi. Culshaw in his book blames Bjorling's alcoholism for his erratic behaviour. However this has been disputed by Bjorling's widow and was also disputed by Nilsson who sang Amelia. Has anybody got any further light to shed on this matter?
A Wozzeck recording in Dresden was arranged for Kleiber but on the first morning he walked out without explanation. I suppose it's the privilege of genius but a professional musician who I mentioned it towns annoyed and called it 'totally unprofessional'. And, of course, it is!
Last edited by DavidA; Sep-09-2017 at 21:36.