Hi Fidelity

There were many advantages to growing up in Cardiff in the 1960s. Rugby was a schoolboy passion (later to become an adult one) and I spent many memorable Saturday afternoons at Cardiff Arms Park watching Cardiff and Wales - in those bygone days of the amateur code, representatives of the Welsh Rugby Union went into schools on the Friday afternoon before an international distributing free tickets for the match. This was before the time of all seated venues so my friends and I would gather in the 'Enclosure', a raked standing area open to the elements, where the behaviour of the Welsh supporters could be a shade robust, but which afforded us some unforgettable experiences, not least watching the 18 year old Keith Jarrett's first international, where he scored nineteen points in a famous victory over the old enemy England.

Another passion was poetry (it still is) and I was lucky that this passion was shared by some close friends. We went to readings at the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre at Cardiff University, where we heard the Liverpool Poets - Henri, Patten and McGough and performances of 'Poetry and Jazz in Concert' with Dannie Abse, Vernon Scannell and the like; we went to readings by Second Aeon, an influential poetry co-operative run by Peter Finch. I even had the audacity to ask Dannie Abse, who was from Cardiff, if he would come to read at my school's Art Society (for free!) the next time he was in Cardiff visiting his mother. To his eternal credit he agreed and I have since held him in very high regard - among poets born in Cardiff he is second only to R.S.Thomas in my estimation.

If you are at all familar with my Blog you will not be surprised to hear that classical music, and particularly classical vocal music was another fast developing passion of mine. Again, Cardiff provided plenty of opportunities in this area. There was the Welsh National Opera, of course, and I developed my knowledge of the core operatic repertoire from about 1968 onwards. I particularly remember performances of Mozart, Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti, rather more esoteric repertoire including Mussorgsky's Boris Gudonov, Berg's 'Lulu', Alun Hoddinott's 'The Beach at Falesa' and, above all, Britten's 'Billy Budd', with Thomas Allen in the title role. A flourishing Music Department at the University (with Alun Hoddinott as Prof) provided more opportunities: the University String Quartet gave regular free concerts (again in the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre, where I also attended a 'cello recital by Rostropovich no less). I heard Holst's opera 'Savitri' for the first time in a student production - is there a more chilling opening to any opera than an unaccompanied bass voice singing 'Savitri, Savitri, I am Death!'? Perhaps the highlight of my school boy concert-going was hearing a recital by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten (with harpist Osian Ellis for good measure) at the opening of the University Music Department's Concert Hall. My programme with their autographs is still a prized possession. Thinking back to these riches, and comparing them with the present: WNO's funding cut to the bone, putting jobs in the Chorus and Orchestra in jeopardy, and Cardiff University abolishing its Music Department, is grim indeed.

Back to more positive memories. Underpinning my burgeoning cultural awareness was a wonderful Library system. In those pre-internet days, books were, of course, the main method of accessing information, and Cardiff Central Library was the jewel in Cardiff's crown of learning. The Reference Library on the first floor was the Sixth Form Homework venue of choice, but my favourite room was on the ground floor, because it was here that the Music Library was housed. I spent hours riffling through the serried ranks of LP's, and browsing the opera and vocal music scores. I can still picture the slim volume of Schubert Lieder that I used to sing 'Der Erlkonig' in my School Eisteddfod (much to the horror of my legendary music teacher Cliff Bunford who had to play the fiendish accompaniment, and realised, as I in my naivety did not, that this choice was far too ambitious for an inexperienced sixteen year old baritone!). But possibly my most vivid memory of the Music Library was a deluxe presentation box set of Solti's 'Ring Cycle'. This seemed to me the epitome of recorded sound glamour, with luxurious packaging, including an embossed front to the box (see photograph). These recordings were always reserved by other library users, but I listened to Hagen (in the unsurpassed person of Gottlob Frick) summoning the vassals in 'Gotterdammerung' in my friend Julian Rees's front room and was suitably awe-struck.

Almost sixty years have passed since those heady adolescent days, but I retain the enthusiasms I describe above (Wales have just this minute lost to Ireland in a match so exciting and so much an improvement on a so far dismal season that it feels like a victory). In this time I have bought, sold, exchanged and discarded literally thousands of LPs, Tapes and CD's and I own the Solti 'Ring' in two of those formats, but the glamour of that 'deluxe, presentation' box set has never left me. I've seen it on sale for huge sums on E-Bay and for rather less, but still beyond my reach, in various charity and second hand shops. Tantalised, I shared my frustration with my family in various despairing Whats App posts.

But now I despair no more, because, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of my son Sam, I received it as my (not so) Secret Santa gift at Christmas. And did the reality disappoint? Certainly not! If any thing the actual object was even more gorgeous than my memory and the LP's sound wonderful!!Thank you my son...

Listening to these Decca LPs set me thinking about recorded sound and our reaction to it. Is it possible to be entirely objective when comparing the alternatives on offer? Well, no, absolutely not. Nothing will persuade me that my Decca LPs do not offer the best recorded sound of Wagner's music there has ever been; my auditory opinion is inseparable from the overall aesthetic experience this 'de luxe, presentation set' offers - it looks magnificent and feels sublime. The booklets, very much of their period are a joy. It is a delicious cumulative experience.

In broader terms, it seems clear to me that LP's in general are more satisfying to own than CD's - they can be a complete artistic package in a way the little silver discs never were and never will be. As for streamed music, it is a useful commodity (you want to listen to the fifteen different recordings of 'Winterreise' by Fischer-Dieskau? Spotify has them), but the experience is essentially sterile.

'Hi Fidelity', the title of this post, is a multi-layered term and the 'fidelity' I am discussing is as much a faithfulness to my young self as it is to any medium of recorded sound. It is also my attempt to reproduce, as faithfully as possible, the profound emotions felt by a grateful father towards his very dear son after receiving such a precious gift...