I think the differences between recordings can be major, although the added interaction of audience and musicians can be much better.
Friends & I have been sitting down on Friday evenings to listen to and compare many different pressings of an agreed on piece of music (this past Friday it was Stravinsky's Firebird.) Some conductors have an affinity for the music in a way that the emotion comes through easily, and others produce a recording that is the musical equivalent of "white bread" or cardboard. I like the way Boulez brings new vitality to 20th century composers, while von Karajan or Bohm breathe life into Beethoven and Mozart. When you are listening to 8-10 versions of a piece in the same evening, the differences are immediate.
The best examples of "live" for me are a Mahavishnu Orchestra concert at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago about 1970-71? I met someone years later and we talked about greatest concerts we were ever at, and it turns out that he was sitting in about the same row and position on the same night. His experience matched mine exactly!
Another memorable performance was hearing Solti & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal at Orchestra Hall for Beethoven's 9th Symphony. A week later they recorded it at the Kraennert Center in Urbana, IL for Decca's 25th Jubilee Anniversary (it was Georg Solti's 25 anniversary of recording with Decca.)
Friends & I have been sitting down on Friday evenings to listen to and compare many different pressings of an agreed on piece of music (this past Friday it was Stravinsky's Firebird.) Some conductors have an affinity for the music in a way that the emotion comes through easily, and others produce a recording that is the musical equivalent of "white bread" or cardboard. I like the way Boulez brings new vitality to 20th century composers, while von Karajan or Bohm breathe life into Beethoven and Mozart. When you are listening to 8-10 versions of a piece in the same evening, the differences are immediate.
The best examples of "live" for me are a Mahavishnu Orchestra concert at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago about 1970-71? I met someone years later and we talked about greatest concerts we were ever at, and it turns out that he was sitting in about the same row and position on the same night. His experience matched mine exactly!
Another memorable performance was hearing Solti & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal at Orchestra Hall for Beethoven's 9th Symphony. A week later they recorded it at the Kraennert Center in Urbana, IL for Decca's 25th Jubilee Anniversary (it was Georg Solti's 25 anniversary of recording with Decca.)