[Chris Hornbeck]

On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:03:54 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

What recordings of classical orchestral repertoire you recommend from
an audio perspective?
I've been listening a lot to Harnoncourt's Beethoven Symphonies with
the European Chamber Orchestra for example, and I am very impressed
with the balance between sound clarity and richness, and the stereo
image is so perfect you can almost see the musicians in front of you.
There is an energy there I am not used to get from a recording. I
could never find that in Karajan/Berlin Phil. for example. What are
the orchestral recordings that really impressed you?

Although I certainly wouldn't argue with any of the excellent modern
minimalist recording labels folks have already championed, I'd like
to add a plea for remembering the great post-War, late-mono/early-
stereo recordings. They have several virtues:

Technology was sufficiently advanced to capture what was there, good
enough for playback in our time with excellent quality. But not so
advanced that it could be easily manipulated with multi-tracks
and endless punches. Takes could be (with great skill and daring)
comped a little, but not distractingly so.

The artists descended directly from folks who *knew* Brahms, or were
taught by someone in the line from Joseph Joachim, or something
similar. They came up in an era when Beethoven and Brahms weren't
academic exercizes; they were real, current music.

Third, some of the really bad sounding recordings from those days
turn out to be much better than anybody could have guessed, especially
the Szell and Cleveland and the Walter with the CBS pickup band, both
now on Sony CD's in excellent sound and cheap. There are other great
Beethoven symphony cycles, but Szell and Walter set serious deep
standards.

And lest anyone think me anti-high-fi, I need only quote Flanders and
Swann contemporarily "Personally I can't think of anything I should
hate more than to have an orchestra actually playing in my sitting
room."

Besides, the aCOWsticks are all wrong,

"You'll still only get the stereophonic effect if you sit in the
bottom of that cupboard."


All the best fortune,
Chris Hornbeck
"I've an opera here that you shan't escape,
On miles and miles of recording tape,"