10 September 2015

Feodor Chaliapin - 50th Anniversary Album - 64 sides - Gramophone/HMV 1902-1936

Glinka:  "A Life for the Tsar" / "Ruslan & Ludmilla"   Side One/Bands 1-2-4    Side One/Band 3
Dargomijsky:  "Rusalka"   Side One/Bands 5-6    Rubinstein:  "The Demon"  Side One/Bands 7-8  
Mussorgsky:  "Boris Gudonov"  Side Two/Band 1    Side Two/Bands 2-5    Side Two/Bands 3-4     Side Three/Band 1
Borodin:  "Prince Igor"   Side Three/Bands 2-3-4    Rimsky-Korsakov:  "Sadko"  Side Three/Band 5
10 files zip FLAC  Mega Download

Rossini / Bellini    Side Four/Bands 1-2-3     Meyerbeer / Donizetti / Verdi    Side Four/Bands 4-5-6    
Verdi / Boito    Side Four/Bands 7-8
Gounod / Delibes    Side Five/Bands 1-2-4-5     Gounod / Flegier / Massenet    Side Five/Bands 3-6-7    
Marseillaise / Glazunov    Side Five/Band 8 + Side Seven/Band 3
Beethoven / Mussorgsky    Side Six/Bands 1-6     Schubert / Koenemann / Sokolov    Side Six/Band 2 + Side Seven/Bands 4-5
Tchaikovsky / Glinka    Side Six/Band 3 + Side Seven/Band 1-2      Glinka / Rubinstein    Side Six/Bands 4-8    
Mussorgsky / Rubinstein / Stenka Razin    Side Six/Bands 5-7 + Side Seven/Band 9
Unaccompanied Folksongs    Side Seven/Bands 6-8 + Side Eight/Band 1    Brigands / Red Sun / Nevstruev    Side Seven/Band 7 + Side Eight/Bands 2-3     Wedel / Strokin / Gretchaninov / Archangelsky    Side Eight/Bands 5-6-7-8
Telephone Sketch    Side Eight/Band 9
15 files zip FLAC  Mega Download  
HMV  EX 7 61065 1  (1988: 4LP's DMM - bought 1989)   Transfers by Keith Hardwick  (much editing required......)     Full details are in the album notes, below >>>






10 comments:

  1. You might find the following to be of interest, but probably too long!
    From a statement by the cellist and conductor Alfred Wallenstein in "The Toscanini Musicians Knew" by B.H. Haggin:
    "Speaking of his Scala years reminds me of the time we were driving somewhere, and he [Toscanini] was tired and had his eyes closed, and my wife asked Mme. Toscanini: 'Who was the greatest artist among the singers Maestro ever worked with?' And suddenly he came to: 'Chaliapin!' Just like that! And this in spite of what he had told me about Chaliapin years before. He had Chaliapin do Mefistofele at La Scala, and worked and worked with him; and it was a very good performance. But two months later he was in Paris and went to hear Chaliapin in Mefistofele at the Opera; and he had forgotten everything and was doing what he had done at the first rehearsal. You had to stay on top of these people all the time, he said, then it was all right. But he still considered Chaliapin by far the greatest"
    More details are given by the violinist Josef Gingold in that same Haggin book:
    "....It was the first time that Chaliapin sang outside of Russia; and Toscanini said that when he came to rehearse, 'Was molto bene, molto modesto. He did some things not perfetto, but we worked. Everything I tell him, he say: 'Si, Maestro, si!' And he did a wonderful Mefistofele. Corrrect! CORRRRRECT!!! You know what a compliment this was from Toscanini.... At last, Toscanini thought, he had a singer who not only had a marvelous voice and was a wonderful actor, but was modest and took direction. They engaged Chaliapin again for the following year; and meanwhile he was engaged elsewhere ... and always with great success .... Then he [Toscanini] had to go to Paris; and in Paris he saw in the newspaper that Chaliapin was singing in Mefistofele ... 'Was porcheria! Male - bad - bad taste - everything distorted! I went backstage and I said to him: 'Chaliapin, you must restudy the whole thing when you come to La Scala! We must work again! 'Si, Maestro, si'" .... about two weeks before Chaliapin was schedule to return to La Scala, they got a telegram that he was sick, so they postponed the performance. Then they got another telegram .... And finally it was evident that he didn't want to come."
    In another book by Haggin, Conversations with Toscanini, Haggin reports:
    "It must have been the discussion of Boris Godunov that reminded him of Chaliapin. "We ask him, but he will not sing at La Scale. After I am gone he sing there" - this with another chuckle. "He sing in first Mefistofele. When I hear him in Mefistofele later I would not speak to him. But later I hear him in first Boris in Paris, and I go to him and say I must embrace him."
    Best regards from over here,
    David Mendes

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    1. Read that in under a minute!
      Not sure if those other discs would be of general interest (+ it can be tiresome to remove/many various glitches on the Acousticals) and Hardwick's transfers seem a bit (?) 'hard/glary' severely truncated treble..but this (+ the Hina Spani 2LP set) must have been my final 'new' LP purchases....but there are quite a few nice (non-aggressive..) performances here

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  2. Of course I hope you transfer the remaining discs! Are there such voices now? Sometimes I feel that I fit the description of the terminally deranged: "Things were much better long, long ago!".

    Best regards again from over here,

    David Mendes

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  3. Thank you very much for your generosity ! This is a fabulous upload !

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    1. Thanks for the comment (rarely received any for Vocal material posts...which doesn't indicate a lack of downloading!).
      Didn't check on any CD issues - but presumably not all tracks are currently available...and trust the sound-quality is acceptable.

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  4. incredible, fabulous, fantastic gift.
    i can only repeat after *d'aubigné* : "Thank you very much for your generosity !"

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    1. I was outbid, a few months back, for a sealed set of the previous 2LP HMV box - transfers were probably Bryan Crimp's - so likely quite 'filtered' - have a Ember LP - some sides are the same - transfers are not too bad; also a range of 78s from pre-WW1 to early 50's pressings

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  5. Thanks so much for this wonderful album. Great transfers.

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    1. Hello Joe - editing wasn't exactly simple - especially as sides 7/8 had more than a few vinyl ticks (faulty stampers) - but Chaliapin's voice has been rendered very vivid throughout the various vintages by Hardwick's EQ.
      Without checking, one of the Italian arias could be in Ezio Pinza's acoustics on Hardwick's HMV LP (some of which also appear in a Pearl 2LP set).
      Having cleared a GB or so on Mega I could transfer some more - maybe the de Luca on Camden (1959) or some of the Martinelli's in that series....Decca UK issues

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  6. Thanks for the Chaliapin upload. I separated the files into individual songs with the Russian titles in transliteration, if anyone is interested. https://cloud.mail.ru/public/5CSK/uCViCUYrh

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