Judy Garland: Recorded Live
and Complete at Carnegie Hall, Sunday, April 23 at 8:30 P.M.
(DCC Compact Classics GZS (2)- 1135/2. No eng. credited; Andy
Wiswell, prod.; Steve Hoffman, remastering eng. AAD.)
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| Recording Quality |
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| Overall Enjoyment |
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 This live performance,
frequently cited as the single best show in Garland's remarkable career, is an amazing
piece of work. Not only is she at the top of her form vocally -- and this after many had
written her off as finished -- but she had a ball standing in front of an orchestra of
nearly 40 musicians, stage-managing, telling jokes, even charming the audience as she
drank a glass of water.
As Judith Crist of The New York Herald put it in her
review the next day, "There was an extra bonus at Carnegie Hall last night, Judy
Garland sang. She didn't have to, as far as the fans jamming the walls of the hall were
concerned. . . ."
And it's true, the disc, billed as "Complete"
after all, records the tumultuous applause that greeted her every action on stage. In
fact, the disc starts with the extended ovation that greeted the orchestra's appearance
prior to the overture. The sound is amazing -- the applause illuminates a huge hall, which
the disc projects faithfully into one' listening room. This disc presents a tremendous
soundstage -- one rivaling that of Harry Belafonte's Carnegie Hall recordings. It'll
demonstrate -- if not tax -- your system's ability to resolve staging detail.
Of course, the first thing most audiophiles will note about
it is that it seems a tad low in level. You'll probably need to turn this disc up beyond
your average listening level -- but be careful! As is usually the case, the reason this
disc seems softer is that it has an incredible dynamic range, and when things get
louder later, they get really loud.
Steve Hoffman mastered this concert from Capitol's
three-track "A-set" remote session tapes. In order to present exactly what was
on the tapes, he left a one-second pause where the engineers needed to change reels,
rather than covering the gap with over-dubbed applause.
The fidelity he achieved is remarkable. In addition to
capturing the size and sound of the hall itself, the disc has remarkably natural timbre in
its recreation of the orchestra, as the overture's medley of "The Trolley Song,"
"Over the Rainbow" and "The Man Who Got Away" demonstrates at the
beginning.
But it was Garland's night, and as good as the orchestra
was, she's the star. Star's the right word, too. She demonstrates a level of assured
showmanship that only a life lived totally in the spotlight can produce. She doesn't just
sing these songs, she inhabits them. Her signature tune, "The Man Who Got
Away," is a white-hot tribute to Garland's resiliency, while "Over the
Rainbow" receives such a transcendently tender treatment that I'll never be able to
think of it as a simple song again. Garland wraps it in so many layers of wistfulness,
poignancy and disillusion that its question -- "Why can't I?" -- seems to embody
every shattered dream I've ever dreamt.
But that's not an isolated moment in this concert, which
lives up to its billing as her greatest night. Each song is delivered with an almost
life-and-death intensity. It's possible she saw it that way -- her previous NY performance
had been universally accorded a disaster. Garland had something to prove on April 23,
1961: It was an announcement that she was still there -- alive and vital, victorious over
every reviewer and fair-weather friend who had written her off.
I've never been that big a fan, so I was totally unprepared
for the power of Garland at her fiercest. This record is an emotional roller-coaster, and
no amount of twenty-first century cynicism can insulate you from the bare-wire intensity
of the diva at her finest. In many ways -- from sound to material to performance -- this
may actually be the greatest pop concert ever recorded. If you care at all about pop
singing or the great American popular standards, you simply have got to hear this.
And if you don't give a fig for all that, you should still
buy this recording because it's one of the greatest audio demo discs you'll ever hear.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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