In article ,
"Norman M. Schwartz" wrote:

Isn't it true that the likes of George Szell, van Karajan, Bernstein and
Stokowski influenced the result of their product in a bad way? I don't
pretend to know or understand how such a thing happened, but it did happen.
Why would you trust their ears in our hobby? I certainly would not.

Columbia/CBS had enough bad sounding productions not involving Szell
or Bernstein to cast doubt on that. The story is Szell's home system
had sub-optimum speaker placement that would lead to eq choices bad
for the rest of us. Bernstein was supposedly enamored of
multi-channel mixing possibilities.

Karajan's jet plane and race car hobbies might have affected his
hearing along with his age, but he was interested in the latest
recording technology. Look at his Beethoven cycles: mono, stereo,
multi-track, digital.

Stokie was recording by the 1920s so age could be a factor there as well.

An underlying point is that conductors trust their own ears.

Stephen

In article ,
Stephen McElroy wrote:

In article ,
"Norman M. Schwartz" wrote:

Isn't it true that the likes of George Szell, van Karajan, Bernstein and
Stokowski influenced the result of their product in a bad way? I don't
pretend to know or understand how such a thing happened, but it did happen.
Why would you trust their ears in our hobby? I certainly would not.

Columbia/CBS had enough bad sounding productions not involving Szell
or Bernstein to cast doubt on that.

That's for sure. Virtually every LP after the "blue label" era was bad
sounding, IMO. A shame, really. I lay some of this at the doorstep of
producer John McClure.

The story is Szell's home system
had sub-optimum speaker placement that would lead to eq choices bad
for the rest of us. Bernstein was supposedly enamored of
multi-channel mixing possibilities.

Karajan's jet plane and race car hobbies might have affected his
hearing along with his age, but he was interested in the latest
recording technology. Look at his Beethoven cycles: mono, stereo,
multi-track, digital.

Stokie was recording by the 1920s so age could be a factor there as well.

An underlying point is that conductors trust their own ears.

Stephen

"Stephen McElroy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Norman M. Schwartz" wrote:

Isn't it true that the likes of George Szell, van Karajan, Bernstein and
Stokowski influenced the result of their product in a bad way? I don't
pretend to know or understand how such a thing happened, but it did
happen.
Why would you trust their ears in our hobby? I certainly would not.

Columbia/CBS had enough bad sounding productions not involving Szell or
Bernstein to cast doubt on that. The story is Szell's home system had
sub-optimum speaker placement that would lead to eq choices bad for the
rest of us. Bernstein was supposedly enamored of multi-channel mixing
possibilities.

Karajan's jet plane and race car hobbies might have affected his hearing
along with his age, but he was interested in the latest recording
technology. Look at his Beethoven cycles: mono, stereo, multi-track,
digital.

Stokie was recording by the 1920s so age could be a factor there as well.

An underlying point is that conductors trust their own ears.
They trust their own ears all right, why shouldn't they? An ability to make
music sound good in the hall does not translate into being able to make it
sound good in the small listening areas in homes.

In article ,
"Norman M. Schwartz" wrote:

"Stephen McElroy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Norman M. Schwartz" wrote:

Isn't it true that the likes of George Szell, van Karajan, Bernstein and
Stokowski influenced the result of their product in a bad way? I don't
pretend to know or understand how such a thing happened, but it did
happen.
Why would you trust their ears in our hobby? I certainly would not.

Columbia/CBS had enough bad sounding productions not involving Szell or
Bernstein to cast doubt on that. The story is Szell's home system had
sub-optimum speaker placement that would lead to eq choices bad for the
rest of us. Bernstein was supposedly enamored of multi-channel mixing
possibilities.

Karajan's jet plane and race car hobbies might have affected his hearing
along with his age, but he was interested in the latest recording
technology. Look at his Beethoven cycles: mono, stereo, multi-track,
digital.

Stokie was recording by the 1920s so age could be a factor there as well.

An underlying point is that conductors trust their own ears.
They trust their own ears all right, why shouldn't they? An ability to make
music sound good in the hall does not translate into being able to make it
sound good in the small listening areas in homes.

Which is not a claim that has been made, of course.