In the same way as the new CD transfer of Karajan’s Philharmonia recording of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (EMI, 10/99) has opened up the mono sound, putting air round the voices and instruments, giving presence, so this mono Philharmonia recording of comparable vintage has been similarly transformed. Where EMI’s earlier transfer of this set – nla – sounds disappointingly flat, a little gauzy, damped down, this one is brighter, clearer, fuller, with textures clarified. Listen in the overture to the bright impact of the first trumpet call (track 1, 2'52'') and the immediacy is striking. The voices too are better defined and separated.
Obviously, a full stereo recording would have been better still, but I well remember that it was this recording which Walter Legge would often cite in conversation, when he mounted his curious hobby-horse, questioning the value of stereo over mono. The scene he picked on was where the children hear the cuckoo in the forest: there the distancing of the cuckoo-call does indeed simulate stereo atmosphere, but that is far clearer this time than last (disc 1, track 14, 1'32'').
As for the performance, it remains a classic, with Karajan plainly in love with the music, and with the two principals singing immaculately. This is not for those who resist the child-voice inflexion of Schwarzkopf and Grummer, but everyone else will register the mastery in both singing and acting. The thinness of Anny Felbermayer’s voice as the Sandman provides an unwelcome contrast, but this is otherwise a satisfyingly Germanic team, totally idiomatic, and it is good to have it in the Great Recordings of the Century series sounding so fresh.'