tatyana69, with all due respect I think you are getting hung up in conceptual quandaries and "missing the (music) forest for the trees". You can’t have it both ways. You are correct, a "composer’s fertile mind" would, in fact, "leap at the opportunities today". However, you seem to be missing some key points:
First, the composers you seem to be referring to DID NOT live today. The tools that you are referring to were not available when they composed. So, the artistic integrity of their works is inextricably linked to what was available to them. Moreover, those very composers would be the first to point out that this reality needs to be respected and that for anyone besides the composer to try and alter how that artistic vision is presented after the fact is to not respect the music and belies a lack of understanding or appreciation of values that are an integral part of quality art; values which emphasize nuance and subtlety ("blob music"?!) and not just the hyper-stimulation that our modern electronically "advanced" culture and it’s music listeners have become accustomed to.
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Many thanks to everyone for suggestions re recordings. Have ordered some to test!
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@tatyana69 thank you for bringing it up! Based on the responses here the idea of bringing an extra dimension into classical music bothers a lot of a'goners!
I totally agree with the sentiment of Alex Ross from his book "The Rest is Noise" that segregating music into Music and Classical Music is WRONG... (a disclaimer, that is one of just two books I had read about music in my entire life! The other one was about Pink Floyd, the band Alex Ross referred to as "sounding like Mahler"). Most of us (myself included!) take this distinction a bit too serious...
Once this segregation is disregarded as moot, I will be thrilled to hear DSOTM in surround with Gilmour guitar flying around me as much as "classical" recording from the perspective of being inside the orchestra. Totally agree with the guys that this has nothing to do with the original "intent" of the composer, but listening to Tchaikovsky under late Celibidache no one can pretend that they are listening to the "original intent" of the composer!... Beautiful, transcendent, but Definitely not the original intent!!! |
Wow, I feel just the opposite! I wish more popular music was recorded with the approach more typical of classical music recordings. The most irksome thing about most contemporary popular music recordings is the squashing of dynamic range, followed by having the musicians sounding as though they're playing in different rooms. I do have to admit that, perhaps due to the microphones being placed above the strings, and piano, rather than in front, I often hear these instruments as being overly bright. Also, I would on some level expect to hear chamber music differently than symphonic music. With chamber music I tend to prefer the musicians in my room perspective a bit more, and with symphonic music I tend to prefer the perspective of being transported to the concert hall. |
Check out Esoterics custom CD/SACD's.
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Oh no, no 'flying guitars' for me please. However, if we start talking about ambient atmospheric tribal music, then I might agree that surround sound may have the place, should be recorded and mastered well though. |
I understand what you are saying by a blob of sound. But the better your equipment becomes(which can take a heckuva lot of money) the more impactful and transparent it becomes. You can listen to Paray's on Mercury Saint Saen 3rd in its most recent cd incarnation and find it overwhelming. I can't stop listening to it. I recently got an outrageously expensive great cartridge and even 70s vinyl pressings of Reiner's Lt. Keiji and Ansermet's Pulcinella are tremendously moving to almost bring tears to your eyes. I know that with more space and more money it is capable of sounding better and then there is reel to reel... But most of us have space and money limitations. And there are those who are into original acoustics on victrolas and find them unearthly in their presence. True time machines. If you want anything better you'd have to hire Dutoit and Montreal to play in your back yard. |
My equipment is good enough to get anything possible from the source, and as you know the better the equipment, the worse is the sound from bad recordings ..... relatively.
I do appreciate suggestions of quality recordings. so thanks - I will research.
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That's why I have a second system. I listen to a lot of historical recordings and I cannot listen to them on my primary system. Too revealing. Box sets I love: The Reiner, Westminster Legacy and the Archive Analogue. All good examples of exemplary sound. And artistry. And we're not talking digital sound here. A disc I use for testing (read about it by a reviewer) is by Trondheimsolistene 'in folk style.' Grieg and some wonderful contemporary composers. Of course if I had mono blocks each with their own power conditioners and 70k speakers with a reel to reel playback system and a large room there would be no end to the possibilities of great sound.
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I hear ya! My second system is my old Saab, with a box of Furtwangler CDs in constant rotation while enjoying the awesomeness of LA traffic! :-) |
Interesting thread! When I first read in "music in the round" that with SACDs there is an option to opt for a surround which puts you inside of an orchestra, I just laughed! TATYANA69, as I understand the original post, is actually looking for this, go figure!
Lets post the photos of our "big rigs" so that the thread could get more meaningful and less anonymous. I will try to post mine today...
Flying Gilmore guitar maybe a dud, but that was the "original intention" of the guys, and I would like to hear it. Until then I have no idea what that is and if it works for me, all I know is that I cannot afford surround at the same quality as my present stereo. |
Surround processing in music is not random division of sound, it keep the natural front imaging but extracts from the general noise certain aspects. A drum beat may be set at the right of me, and maybe a trumpet at my left ear. What this does, apart from allowing the individual sounds to be heard that are usually "lost", is have less mash of sound coming from two speakers if in stereo - and, in stereo, if you have a lot going on at any time it can confuse the speaker. I listen to my vinyl too in surround sound and love the ability to hear lots of "stuff" that is submerged in stereo.
My second system is of less quality but seems to have more "old fashioned atmosphere" - so it is a question of satisfying itches at any time.
I hope some of the recommendations placed on this thread will help me find quality recordings that will present the actual music better than usual, and revitalise my interest in classical music. |
Well, I did it! Now you can see the photos of my "pride'n'joy"...
a-Goners seriously segregate into buyers/sellers (me until recently), talkers (me as of this year) and Virtual System braggers (me as of today!). |
Great effort is put into the recording of much/most classical music as it's an expensive proposition and conductors are notoriously fussy. If you have a great system -with a "phase reverse" switch-most classical recordings are very enjoyable. It just takes good equipment,knowledge and effort to get the most out these recordings.
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ptss, I wish more companies put a polarity reversal switch on their pre-amp(s). Ralph at Atma-Sphere is one of the few. And a mode switch (stereo/reverse/mono/left/right) too. |
