Are you troubled by the imaging of a symphony orchestra?

Orchestral imaging has always been problematic in my experience. How many mikes were employed? Overdubs? Was the venue truly good enough, or did the producers have to make due? Were the producers pressured by the label (or the conductor) into doing some prestidigitation? "Kind Sir, how ’bout upping the reverb a tad?" And oh yes, as orchestras evolved, sections would get switched around.

I frequently enjoyed going to the Symphony and sitting close.
It is hard to get that picture out of my mind.

Indeed. Hardly anyone does recordings the way it would take to recreate that sound. All the classical orchestra recordings I ever heard seem intended to recreate the sound from at least about a third of the way back. Since the records are made that way anything you do to try and recreate that sound will lead to nothing but problems.

Sad to say you are just going to have to come to terms with the fact that your front row seating is for live events only, and get used to the sound from the cheap seats when you are at home. 

I agree that few get it right. I listen exclusively to classical and jazz and like you love live orchestra concerts. And I feel the same way as you regarding lack of imaging. 
For that very reason I veered into multi channel audio—some recordings really do it well. Others are just gimmicks. 
The Living Stereo 3-channel SACD reissues come quite close. They were originally recorded with a center mic which got mixed into the left and right channels for the LPs. But Analogue Productions has been rereleasing them in multi channel SACD. 
Also Pentatone has released many of the Phillips quadraphonic recordings from the 70s in SACD form.  (The Pentatone founders came from Phillips.)

And of course, there are very well imaged modern recordings, but again multi channel. 

 Sorry, no real LP suggestions here. 

Some labels get imaging right; Decca, Philips, Chandos, RCA Red Seal, to name a few. Telarc, excellent sonics but has the 2/3 back seating and an unnatural hall ambience (but I kind of like it). DG does not get it, with it’s overmic’d unrealistic presentation. It’s not even first row, it’s a wall of sound. And Karajan’s meddling ruined some of his great performances. Post 2000 they’ve gotten much better.

Many recordings offer an up front listening position using a close multi-mic setup. You hear the different sections without much space between them and a less 3 dimensional presentation.

I like being half way back in a lively hall, instruments in their proper place with a sense of space. A good recording will have the horns behind the strings. Many engineers can’t mic and mix horns correctly, the end product has the trumpet and trombone in the string section.
And yes, I was regularly going to hear live classical before Covid. No recording captures that experience. Some of the smaller labels using proper minimal mic techniques can get somewhat close.

The SQ is good but it is troublesome the not hear the violin section on the left, the violas and celli on the right, etc.

Are you referring to older recordings where minimal mic's don't pick up the instruments evenly? There were the three mic recordings, then later 10 to 12 mic's were employed, making for more realistic imaging.