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Title: RCA Release has pitiful sound
Review: I don't know about this bootleg, but I bought the recently-released (and expensive) version on RCA and the sound is terrible: there is clipping everywhere and everything is muddled together. Listening to the Flowermaidens was torture. I don't know why this is--other Wiener Staatsoper recordings from this period (e.g. Die Frau ohne Schatten, also with Karajan and Ludwig, on DG) sound much better. Grammophone waxed idyllic about this Parsifal without mentioning the severe sonic shortcomings. It does seem to be a good performance underneath all the distortion. I can't believe the Vienna engineers would have made such a lousy recording--perhaps the tapes were poorly stored or damaged. Maybe this cheaper version is better, if it was taken off a live radio feed.
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