There is no question that the compact disc has given the industry a tremendous incentive to invest in classical recording. The result has been a broadly diverse catalogue-from early music played on authentic instruments to the newest new music. For the collector the advantages have been as obvious as the convenience, added sonic presence and transparency, silent backgrounds and programmability of the new carrier.
Now that the CD has mined most of the back catalogue of the LP era, the companies are digging ever deeper into their vaults of historical material. In so doing they are coming up with performances that recreate entire eras before our marveling ears, sans the dim recording and surface scratch of the originals. A new generation is discovering vanished performance practices and a type of passionate, even downright quirky individuality that makes today’s young pretenders seem like the boys in the bland.
The CD, it would appear, has made completists out of everyone. Such has been the commercial success of the CD that the rush is on to deliver to the market complete recorded editions by a host of classical icons. Philips made a chartbuster out of Mozart with its complete (in 44 volumes) Mozart edition. Editions devoted to conductor Arturo Toscanini, singers Maria Callas and Enrico Caruso, pianist Glenn Gould (who is also the subject of extensive video documentation on Sony), violinist Jascha Heifetz and composer-performers Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff are completed or in progress.
The harsh, chilly glare of digital sound on early CDs has been lessened, if not vanquished altogether, as engineers learned to realize the technology’s potential more fully. Some sound-fanciers remain attached to the warmer, fuzzier ambience of their prized LPs, however. For them CD sound will forever remain slightly antiseptic, unreal and, hence, unmusical, however great the technological advances of the medium.
