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Astonishingly holographic recordings

mandryka

mandryka

pfm Member
I just cannot believe how good the l’homme armé mass sounds here. The music’s mystical and powerful, the OVPP performance is intense, the composer is obscure but there’s no good reason for that.

But that’s not what I’m meaning, that’s not why I’m creating the thread. It sounds like they are there in the room, or rather my room has become the venue - a church hall maybe. You can still buy it from Orf’s website.

https://shop.orf.at/rso/en/search?sSearch=Faugues

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The most successful of replay [and broadcasting] turns your listing space into part of the venue, rather than bringing the players and singers into your room.

I never can quite understand how people can think that having the Berlin Philharmonic in their front room would be pleasant at all.

Okay I would be quite happy to have had Segovia playing in my front room, but most music needs a lot more space to breath and balance well.

ATB from George
 
TheDecameron said:
Yes indeed. Even that 1980ish Music for Pleasure vinyl! I assume they re-recorded it? Even so the original is a masterpiece of engineering.
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Yes they re-recorded it, the original is stunning. There were some great recordings on the Classic for Pleasure label - the Cluyten Beethoven symphonies for example.

I tend to think of listening at home as being just outside of a hall with large doors open in front of me.
 
One person who I think had a very important impact on classical music on record post war is the French producer Michel Bernstein, if you’re not familiar with his name here’s his wiki

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Bernstein

Anyway, some of the recordings have fabulous sound, holographic sound, distinctive sound. An example would be the Talich Quartet’s Mozart and Beethoven.

I’m listing right now to Bernstein’s final production, Gunar Letzbor playing the Bach solo violin music. It’s a very experimental recording, not only in terms of the interpretation (which prides itself on being the first to follow Georg Muffat’s ideas about bowing and articulation), but also because of the engineering - they wanted to capture on record the sound of the violin from the performer’s perspective. Whatever you think of the performances, this is interesting, very interesting, for the sound.

Another similar idea from the engineering point of view, is Tom Beghin’s recording of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas. Beghin recreated Beethoven’s “hearing machine”, a sort of huge horn placed over the piano which the composer would use to get a feeling for what he was composing sounded like - don’t forget he was pretty deaf at the time. The engineers wanted to reproduce the sound from Beethoven’s perspective as he used the hearing machine. The result gives quite a bit of food for thought.
 
i just got an british pressing of 'broken english' and am finding some VERY curious goings on spatially speaking ... vocals coming from the far left wayyyy behind my speakers ... but also sounding weirdly balanced ... maybe a room artifact? or can anyone else confirm?
 
The Colin Davis LSO box set of Sibelius contains some wonderfully immersive recordings. Paradoxically, the Gergiev Mahler 8 recorded in St.Pauls has an expectedly wonky balance with soloists way behind the speakers but is rescued by a superb performance.
 
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Astonishing sound on this recording, which I’m playing though my big system - augmented ESLs and big quad power amps, no preamp. The sound take is slightly close, but not necessarily artificial, you just have to imagine you’re in a front row seat. Honestly, the sound knocked my wig off. There are two instruments: an Italian harpsichord and one which was originally from Holland.

Farnaby probably is one of these composers who isn’t very well known to non specialists, but in Hantai makes his music sound as fun as anything by Scarlatti of Chopin.
 
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The balance between soloist and orchestra in K 491 is very impressive, as is the clear sound, each instrument located in its own space. One of the best Mozart concerto recordings -- both in terms of sound and in terms of interpretation. I haven't heard the C major concerto more than once, but my impression is that it's also exceptional in every way.
 
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Just four men singing medieval music. An uncanny feeling of the space between each singer, and, even more impressive, you can sense the walls and the ceiling of the room they’re singing in. I’ve tried it on three different systems and it’s impressive on all of them. Amazing really.
 
Most piano recordings are recorded too close for me. This one is an exception, the piano sounds very real and it sounds like you're in a good seat in the hall. The performances are also very interesting. This sounded especially impressive on the ESLs.

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This is the one I hauled around Hifi shops 30 odd years ago when buying gear and still use it to assess equipment.The guy in Russ Andrews High Fidelity in Edinburgh was very impressed by it, even with the sizzle it elicited in an all Linn system fronted by an LP12, which he commented on. Listening to it all these years later on better gear, no sizzle, just excellent SQ. the sizzle was the Ittok and cart.
Fanfare for The Common Man- not just the timbre of the brass and percussion but the hall ambience. I still listen to it- the bass is also seismic- a tribute to Decca’s engineers again.

https://www.discogs.com/Copland-Det...al-Dorati-El-Salón-Mexico-Etc/release/3798157

I had an overdose of hall ambience with this recently but back when it was released I think gear couldn’t resolve all of the hall’s signature!
https://www.discogs.com/Mendelssohn...ny-No-3-Scottish-No-4-Italian/release/4637247
 
Stunsworth said:
I tend to think of listening at home as being just outside of a hall with large doors open in front of me.
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I have a Melodya, Leningrad/ Mravinsky live recording that sounds like the microphones were outside the doors in the lobby and the engineers had gone to the bar- before and during.
 
TheDecameron said:
I have a Melodya, Leningrad/ Mravinsky live recording that sounds like the microphones were outside the doors in the lobby and the engineers had gone to the bar- before and during.
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If it's like some of the Melodya LPs I have, there was also mic in the bar recording the engineers eating packets of crisps.
 
TheDecameron said:
I have a Melodya, Leningrad/ Mravinsky live recording that sounds like the microphones were outside the doors in the lobby and the engineers had gone to the bar- before and during.
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I used to think that Italian recordings sounded like that, Toscanini etc. Until I heard an Italian orchestra for the first time, I remember it was in a ballet in the Caracalla baths. And then I found that that's what they really do sound like!
 
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