Left/Right Orientation of Piano Recordings -- Any Preferences?


Unlike a symphony orchestra or a string quartet there seems to be no standard on how the piano is oriented in recordings.

Many recordings (e.g. the RR Nojima Liszt) assume the "pianist view" orientation with the left hand on the left and the right on the right.

While others (e.g. the John Marks Records Delmoni/Funahashi Brahms violin sonata) have the pianist behind the soloist and our orientation is from 6' in front of the soloist with the left hand/bass notes on the right [btw I see this super collectible and super desirable CD has been reissued by ArkivMusic -- you should all buy it ASAP!]

Both of these make sense in their own contexts but I wondered if others had a preference one way or another, or if you care at all :-)

128x128folkfreak

Showing 1 response by folkfreak

Agreed @testpilot so when you actually listen in a concert the piano has little to no left right orientation at all as, excluding differences in lengths of the bass vs higher note wires the whole thing is just in one point on the stage for the ideal front center listener, this is usually how we hear many (not over miked) symphony recordings

but for solo or chamber music there are many other choices on where to put the mikes, are any that assume the pianist perspective therefore “wrong”?