Recommendations for close miked classical recordin

Of orchestral recordings that still maintain a perspective of listening from the audience, the Mercury label recordings consistently offered a more front row, up-front, presentation than many other classical labels.

Decca, EMI, Chandos, BIS and many others leaned more to a mid-hall perspective. I have heard one or two more recent digital recordings that are done in surround sound where the perspective is that of a performer seated in the orchestra, but I can't give any suggestions because this is not something I'm inclined to listen to. But, there are some out there and perhaps others can offer specific suggestions.

The Sheffield recording Al mentions above is an excellent LP, but it may still have very much of a mid-hall perspective to your tastes, I suspect.

Try something like the Mercury recording of the Stravinsky "Firebird Ballet," Dorati/LSO, Mercury SR 90226, or the Prokofiev "Scythian Suite" on Mercury SR 90531, and see if that front of hall perspective gives you more satisfaction.

If you're still looking for greater immediacy, then you are probably headed for some recordings that toss out natural soundstaging, which Al and I value, but go for close multi-miking of the individual instruments and sections. For that, some of the later Deutsche Grammophon recordings may be what you need to try.
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Thank you all for the suggestions. I'm going to try and track some of these down. (BTW, listening to the clips of Webern's trios and quartets on Amazon -- sounds like the kind of recording I'm looking for, but pretty challenging musically!)

BTW, I've heard that Telarc tends to mic their recordings more "up front", but I haven't bought anything on Telarc for quite some time. Does anyone out there concur?

Warrensomebody: If you want some Webern in close-miked bliss, get the Robert Craft Columbia recording of the complete Webern. It has exactly the sound you are looking for. However, for the trios and quartets it is not my favorite. That would be the Arditti quartet recording, out of print, CD only. It also has a close-miked sound, but not a severe as the Craft. If you can find a '6-eye' pressing (original) on Columbia as a box set GRAB IT!

As a couple of people have mentioned, close-miking an orchestra does not result in the best sounding recording - it all has to be mixed later, which always ends up sounding totally different than it does in the hall. This is not even to mention the problem of instruments bleeding over into the wrong mikes, which will always happen, even using directional mikes. The very best sounding orchestral recordings that the previous posters have mentioned were without exception miked from farther out in the hall, or far above the orchestra, using far fewer microphones than are used in today's digital world.

I guess I'm not so much interested in multi-miked / mixed recordings as simply ones that are recorded close up, with minimal hall ambiance. I think that just tends to dull the impact of the transients, string resonances, etc. I'd also like the drums to have a little more impact. I mean a kettle drum is all about drama, so why is it so often recorded in such a polite and aloof manner?

So maybe I should ask what you guys look for to ensure the best recordings sonically? Is there a reliable reference guide, some particular recording technique mentioned in the liner notes (natural soundstaging -- is that formally defined, or simply a casual term?), a particular recording company you look for? BTW, I just picked up Julia Fischer / Kreizberg "Russian Violin Concertos" on PentaTone SACD, recorded by Polyhymnia (former Philips Classics Recording Center people), and it meets my criteria.