I just bought the new Clearaudio/Deutsche Grammophone vinyl LP of „Violetta“ with Netrebko. It is the only major classical release on vinyl since years coming from a mayor label like DG. So as a listener of all medias (vinyl, reel, CD, SACD) I was very curious whether it is possible extract a good analog sound from the recorded session in summer 2005 at the Salzburger Festspiele in these days.
Since it is really the only big release of present-day classical music on vinyl it must be a topic of friends of classical music.When was the last fully commercial release of a classical vinyl record of a major artistic and commercial performance? 1985?

The LP itself is very well manufactured. 2 records on heavy vinyl. The label on the records shows the DG-sign with a well chosen modern surrounding. The flap cover is done nicely, too. Netrebko on the front of the cover helps surely...

The peformance itself is wonderful. Netrebko is not the Violetta of a Sutherland, Gruberova, de los Angeles or Callas. Netrebko is life itself - high up. Life suits Netrebko. Why must it be down-drodden? From Alfredos father (wonderful sung from Hampson), from Alfredo (Villazón also full of life), from the coming death itself. Depressing.

A Violetta like a rose - in full bloom. But dying of thirst. Not getting the water to allow for survival.

The orchestral performance is a bit weak, but that does not weaken the performance of the singers. Maybe the singers (and the performance) even profit from this weakness.

Those who have seen the performance live or on TV know that this was one of the best directed and played (Willy Decker) opera Salzburg has seen in the last decades. The girls in my living room who have seen the television live transmission were all distraught in tears during the duet between Hampson and Netrebko... I assume that the performance will also be released on DVD in the next months. Buy it! You will like the video.


The sound: I used the opportunity of the television broadcast in 2005 to make an anolog private recording. The transmission was done in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. For users of a normal TV-antenna the Austrian Broadcasting Service (ORF) mixes the sound down to Stereo. This signal I recorded from my PC together with the picture on DVD. The sound itself was done in CD-quality (44.1kHz). Therefore I have this (only for private use) reference recording on CD-R too, done by myself direct from the Television.
Surely I expected that a commercial release on LP will easely top this private CD-R.

We tried the LP on different systems (Linn LP12, Ekos, Lyra Lydian; Thorens TD124, SME3012, Goldring 1042; and the prefered TD124, Mayfare Unipivot, MusicMaker Cartridge). All show the same result:

the comparison between the expensive LP ($45) and the CD-R shows that the sound on the LP is absolutely bad. Firstly the vinyl itself. It is noisy with a lot of ticks and tacks. The level of the signal is low, so that you have to increase the volume to such a level that vinyl surface noise is in the listening range. We got the feeling that this low recording level was chosen to avoid tracking problems during loud/dynamic passages. During listening of vocal climaxes You get this disturbing feeling that by now or now the tracking of the needle will fail. But this never happens. All high frequencies are delivered without losing tracking control, but with lots of ticks and increased surface noise. The sound of everything (orchestra, singers) is behind a veil and muddly. Where my CD-R delivers a very open sound the LP limits the range in the lows and highs. There is much more control of the soundstage on CD-R, too.

We know the problem when digitally recorded women voices are pressed onto analog vinyl without much care. Where a CD-player has a good decoder in this days a record player shows the pure signal. And when the transfer to analog is badly done then there is no way to get it right anymore at home. On my CD-R Netrebkos voice is quite listenable, does not sound to hissy. On LP her voice is dumber, but nevertheless with a lot of hiss in the high tones. On LP her voice sounds dumb but not that warm. And Netrebko has got such a wonderful warm voice. Not on vinyl...

The voice of Rolando Villazón loses its whole charakter on vinyl and becomes nerving. A lot of hiss in the high peaks of his timbre destroys his voice. Also Thomas Hampson voice becomes dumb.

Quite interesting is also that all the sound of the staging (this is a live recording) itself (the walking, movement of bodies, etc.) is damped on the vinyl. We got the feeling that it was tried to get rid of the Live charakter, also applause is omitted. On my CD-R the sound of "Live" is very present (Netrebko did a lot of running on stage, the aplauses) but not disturbing because it fits into the action.


All in all: What should have become a big opportunity – an actual release of an analog medium of classical music – became a acoustical disaster. Maybe somebody wanted to proof that digital is better than analog?

Maybe the classical industry is happy to got rid of analog, because analog needs a lot of care to get excellent results. Maybe all the know-how is lost by now...


Being a vinyl- and analog addict and knowing from recordings of the 1950's until the 1970's that analog sounds properly done much better than digital I have sadly to say: wait for the DVD, that will be wonderful. You will see!