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GARY A GALO(EDITOR)
Giovanni Martinelli -- The Acoustic Recordings 1913-1923. Preiser Lebendige Vergangenheit 89213 (2 CDs).
Giovanni Martinelli -- The Complete Acoustic Recordings 1912-1924. Romophone 82012-2 (3 CDs).
Giovanni Martinelli. Preiser Lebendige Vergangenheit 89062 (1 CD).
Giovanni Martineli -- The Great Victor Recordings 1925-1929. Pearl GEMS 0030 (2 CDs).
Giovanni Martinelli. Pearl GEMM CD 9184 (1 CD).
The commercial recorded legacy of tenor Giovanni Martinelli has, until very recently, received only limited treatment on Compact Disc. In my review of Romophone's four-disc collection of the 1923-1929 Victor recordings of Rosa Ponselle (ARSC Journal 1994;25[2]:233-238), which included her superb duet recordings with Martinelli, I suggested that a CD edition of the tenor's complete commercial recordings was long overdue. With the issue of the five collections considered in this review, all but one of the complete issued commercial recordings of Martinelli are, at long last, available on CD.1.,2.Unfortunately this news is not entirely positive -- the rather haphazard assembly of his recorded output, on three labels by a variety of transfer engineers, is a very mixed bag, from a technical standpoint.
Preiser's two-disc collection of acoustical recordings, 89213, consists almost entirely of issued Victor material recorded between 1913 and 1923. The only issued Victor acoustics missing from the collection are the four sides comprising the Nile and Tomb scenes from Verdi's Aiïda, recorded on 7 and 8 February 1924 with Rosa Ponselle. Although Preiser's transfers are not as technically sophisticated as the best work being done today, the sound on this collection is generally very good, with a warm, natural vocal timbre.
Romophone has issued the tenor's complete acoustical recordings on three CDs, including the six published Edison Diamond Disc sides recorded in 1912, and all acoustic Victors, including several unpublished takes. Ward Marston's transfers for this collection are consistently excellent, both cleaner and quieter than those on Preiser. The unpublished Victor items featured in the Romophone collection include the 1915 ''Au quartier pour l'appel'' from Carmen with soprano Geraldine Farrar, issued in 78 rpm form only by William Seltsam's International Record Collector's Club (IRCC 58), and an essential complement to the four remaining excerpts from this opera recorded during these sessions (Preiser has also included this recording). An unpublished...