When will there be decent classical music recordings?

tatyana69 - Hi Fi & recordings are observational; enjoyed as the audience. If you want to experience the sound from the perspective of a player then sell your system & join an orchestra.  

I would like to hear some people's worst nightmare.  That would be to mic every instrument individually, and then have the conductor work with audio engineers to bring the piece back to life.

"mic every instrument individually, and then have the conductor work with audio engineers to bring the piece back to life."

it's not a nightmare, it can be done. the best solution is to store the individual instrument recordings as master. Then have the different recording engineers /studios to "mix" the different instruments recordings according to their "taste" then market under their on labels . Since each audiophile have their different perception on the correctness & presentation of complex works, i guess this way we could have higher chance of getting the music style we each prefers. 

-philip

I find that most classical recordings deliver more detail, particularly for higher frequencies, than I hear in actual concerts.  Yes, someone on stage, like the OP has a different perspective, but, the records are meant to sound somewhat like what the audience hears.  Most recordings are made to sound vibrant and alive by kicking up the top end just a little bit more than natural, but, I sort of like this when I am listening at home.  

As for dynamic range of recordings, this is deliberately compressed for most classical recordings of large orchestral pieces.  I have a few supposedly uncompressed recordings that come with a big warning on the front of the CD about how loud it can get.  The extreme range makes it quite hard to play the recording with any kind of noise in the room whatsoever, and at full volume one has to worry a bit about how hard the speakers are being pushed.  I know someone who blew out a tweeter on such a recording and he swears it was not playing that loudly at that time.   I can see why recording companies don't make uncompressed orchestral music on a regular basis.

I find that most classical recordings deliver more detail, particularly for higher frequencies, than I hear in actual concerts.... Most recordings are made to sound vibrant and alive by kicking up the top end just a little bit more than natural, but, I sort of like this when I am listening at home.

As you most likely realize, Larry, that will happen to a significant degree even if no electronic equalization is applied during the engineering of the recording, since even if just two or three mics are utilized those mics will usually be positioned closer to the performers than most of the seats in a concert hall. And as distance increases treble frequencies attenuate more rapidly in air than lower frequencies.

Best regards,
-- Al