Dharmatone:

I have no problems listening to Gobbi, Casals, Tureck, Busch and company, etc etc ... with revealing Axioms. Yes poorly transferred material will sound much worse, but in general I actually find mono VOCAL recordings to be much more vivid than stereo -- at the expense of dynamic range of course. I'm not sure if the engineers aim for a different sound when they process old master tapes. Or maybe they just dick around with it less.

You'll be fine. You can't find a Baron Scarpia better than Gobbi anyways