Nudity, Art and Scandal in Paris! “Olympia” by Edouard Manet

[longship]

46. I prefer Duke Ellington's recipe.

If the music sounds good, it is good.

Or as I wrote above when Samuel Clemens was quoted upon leaving the NY Met Opera House after a Wagner opus. "Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds."

Myself, I love Wagner's Ring. Especially the old recordings. Solti's is the best, IMHO.

When it comes to music, ones taste is within ones mouth.

I am a huge fan of 50's classical recordings. And of the di Sabata/Callas Tosca. Some may have done Tosca better, but there are few who had both Callas and Tito Gobbi as Scarpia.

Here's the deal. It is not about one individual performance, but how the ensemble works as a whole. There have been many Toscas, and quite a few have been better than Callas. However, her 1953 recording with de Sabata has the distinction of being one of the greatest of the opus because of the cast, orchestra, and conductor just simply work together.

It's like Giulini's Don Giovanni or Beecham's La Böheme with Jussi Björling and Victoria de Los Angeles.

Sometimes forces of nature come together to make a perfect storm.

One can pick at the edges but nobody can credibly claim that the whole is diminished in these iconic recordings.

Try Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations, another iconic recording, just like Callas' Tosca, de Los Angeles and Björling's La Böheme. And like Solti's Ring cycle. And like Barbirolli's Elgar Cello concerto (with Jacqueline duPre) and Mahler Fifth.

There are many iconic recordings, performances which go far beyond individual performances but have a ensemble which just works well for a particular work or composer. My list of such things is quite long and goes back decades.

None is perfect. All one requires with music, or any art, is that one is moved by it. And one chooses their favorites.

My best to you.