SQ or performance?


In classical music, how much does the sound quality influence your enjoyment of a particular piece?  I find it plays a large part. A recording is an artifact in itself.  There are many factors which contribute to the final product. And even a great performance can be sabotaged by poor engineering, poor pressing, poor microphone placement and the like. Conversely, a mediocre performance can be attractive to us because of sterling acoustics.   
In “historical” recordings we may allow for bad sound, but in contemporary performances the sound can have  a significant bearing on our perspective.
Also, our appreciation of a given performance can be affected by other factors.  For example, if we grew up loving a certain version, all others may suffer by comparison in our view.
 

 

rvpiano

Showing 1 response by clearthinker

Why are you all putting up YouTube presentations in a thread about sound quality?  The SQ is dire.

Recordings made after about 1950 can be very good SQ.  Before then not really; you are listening for the performance.