Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – Richard Wagner: Overtures, Preludes (2011) {SACD ISO + FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz}

Esoteric have produced a remarkable transfer that preserves beautifully the hall sound, spatial information and detail. The brass and mass strings have excellent detail, revealing a lot of subtle harmonies and variation – a boon for anything Wagner. This contributes to an overall impression of sophistication and restraint and goes perfectly with Karajan’s Wagner.

In comparison with other SACDs in the Esoteric reissue program, I find the sound to be equally remarkable in quality and character to the the finest recordings available of – the highest demonstration quality recordings to start with and will better the present recording on any format.

For the source material used in the remastering, the packaging states (in Japanese) “remastered from original analog master tapes”. Based solely on the final merits Esoteric has splendidly succeeded. A must-have!

Tracklist:
Richard Wagner
Overtures and Preludes
1. Prelude to Act 1 from “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg”
2. Overture from “Tannhauser” (Paris Version)
3. Venusburg Music from “Tannhauser” (Paris Version)
4. Prelude to Act 1 from “Lohengrin”
5. Prelude to Act 3 from “Lohengrin”
6. Overture “Der Fliegende Hollander”
7. Prelude to Act 1 from “Tristan und Isolde”
8. Liebestod from “Tristan und Isolde”

Artists:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus of Deutsche Oper Berlin, Herbert von Karajan
Recorded: 22 September & 1, 15-19 October 1974, Berlin

Re-mastering:
Producer: Motoaki Ohmachi (ESOTERIC COMPANY)
Mastering Engineer: Kazuie Sugimoto (JVC Mastering Center)

A note about the Esoteric EMI masterpiece collection:
The reissue of classical music masterpieces by ESOTERIC has attracted a lot of attention, both for its uncompromising commitment to recreating the original master sound, and for using hybrid Super Audio CD (SACD) technology to improve sound quality. This series marks the first hybrid SACD release of two selections from EMI classics that have been mainstays of the catalog since their initial release on LP, until the present digital age of CD. These new audio versions feature DSD mastering of the original recordings.

SACD ISO

WagnerOverturesPreludesKarajanEsotericSACD.part1.rar
WagnerOverturesPreludesKarajanEsotericSACD.part2.rar
WagnerOverturesPreludesKarajanEsotericSACD.part3.rar
WagnerOverturesPreludesKarajanEsotericSACD.part4.rar

FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz

WagnerOverturesPreludesKarajanEsotericSACDrip2488.2.part1.rar
WagnerOverturesPreludesKarajanEsotericSACDrip2488.2.part2.rar