The CD library now has two almost complete Ruffo collections, for, in addition to the two-disc set listed above, Preiser have previously issued a three-disc box (2/93) called “Titta Ruffo Edition” and comprising his output for the Victor Company between 1912 and 1929. Omitted are all but three of the 15 Pathes (1905), the 1907 Pagliacci Prologue starting “Un nido” (but the 1912 version is complete) and the Rigoletto duet (“Deh, non parlar”) with Finzi-Magrini. These come within the category ‘Early Recordings’, and all are included in the Pearl volumes. Pearl also have a further 11 late recordings, making their edition by far the more complete in respect of the first and last known periods of Ruffo’s career in the studios. His final sessions took place at Abbey Road in 1933 when, according to Keith Hardwick’s note, 12 items were recorded, seven of them being netted in Pearl’s Vol. 3. As for the rest (which include Until, Ruffo’s only song in English, and Hamlet’s “Essere o non essere”): “It is intensely irritating to know that the others are available in the United States, but have been denied to us.”
Apart from completeness, the major consideration is quality of transfer. Preiser do a good job, as is customary with them, and it is possible that some listeners will find their work more comfortable than the brighter, more sharply etched sound on Pearl. Still, one doesn’t go to Ruffo for comfort, and the thrill of his resonance and the subtlety of his colours are more powerfully conveyed by the Hardwick transfers on Pearl.
Certainly the hum which afflicts a number of the Preiser transfers (the “Pari siamo” and “Cortigiani” for instance) is superfluous to requirements. Questions of speed and pitch are generally well settled in both editions, though Preiser go wrong with the Serenade (“O bella mia”) from Siberia (a gruff-and-grum semitone low) and also, I think, on the spoken “Essere o non essere” where the reciting note is roughly A flat on Preiser but more plausibly A natural as on Pearl.
Let’s deal with some other matters of choice. If it is a complete Ruffo that you want, the three volumes on Pearl are the clear answer. Suppose you already have Preiser’s Ruffo Edition (the three-disc collection of Victors), then Pearl’s Vol. 1 is still a viable alternative to Preiser’s present issue: ten items would be lost between the end of Pearl Vol. 1 and the start of the Preiser Victors in 1912, but you gain 12 Pathes and the two other missing items noted earlier. Suppose you are starting from scratch and think it might be wise to buy one volume at a time, then Pearl’s Vol. 2 is the obvious recommendation. Starting in 1912 with the last of the Italian recordings, it takes you through to 1920 and so covers the period in which the state of Ruffo’s voice and art is best matched with the quality of recorded sound. Much of the essential Ruffo is there: the Otello Credo and duet with Caruso, the solos from L’africana and Dinorah, two magnificent versions of “Largo al factotum”, the Hamlet Brindisi, the Rigoletto monologue. A more unexpected triumph is the inspired Nabucco record, and among fringe-benefits are some songs and two Shakespeare recitations (in Italian).
Ruffo was of course a giant among the singers of his time. In later years his reputation grew as contemporaries (Serafin, Ponselle, Martinelli, De Luca and so forth) would speak of him with something very like awe. He was also a singer with flaws both technical and artistic (they were apparent to most of the London critics who heard him in concert in the same week as the 70-year-old Battistini). Whatever may be said on these scores, it is commonly found that his records are uncommonly addictive: Vol. 2, once admitted to the shelves, will almost certainly set up an urgent whispering campaign in favour of Vols. 1 and 3.'