Klarinet Archive - Posting 000197.txt from 1999/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 22:05:04 -0400

At 08:58 PM 10/7/1999 EDT, LeliaLoban wrote:
>Hear, hear. Strange listening experiences abound, and not just on TV. Case
>in point: Telarc's recording (CD-80274) of the Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 in
>C Minor, Op. 78, with Michael Murray at the organ and Christian Badea
>conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I listened to this recording,
>or I should say *these recordings*, for the first time without reading the
>liner notes first. It seemed like an odd-sounding CD from the get-go.
>Usually I visualize the musicians as I listen, but this time, I couldn't
>picture them. They seemed sort of disembodied. Microphones here,
>microphones there, microphones everywhere. Mix 'n' match. Then all of a
>sudden an entire rank of organ pipes leaped across the room from the left
>speaker into the right speaker. Whoa!
>
>I got out the liner notes. Behold a miracle of modern engineering: Telarc
>recorded the orchestra in Walthamstow Town Hall in London on July 4-5, 1990
>and Murray at the organ in the Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples,
>Florida, on May 13, 1991. Saint-Saens karaoke! When somebody suggested
this
>misbegotten idea, why didn't Badea or Murray or somebody just say no? Are
>they really so much at the mercy of their recording contracts?
>
This is odd, since the Telarc engineers are, by and large, of the
minimalist miking persuasion. I even have a recording of the "Symphonie
Fantastique" they did where the bell in the March to the Scaffold was
recorded in a tower separate from the recording studio, but in real time!

By the oddest coincidence, I did happen to catch the VSO concert in
question and, while the sound did not particularly offend me, the
concentration on Maazel did, and the feeling I got watching him that
reminded me of watching a movie with the sound synchronization a bit off.
I'm glad I didn't have to follow him!

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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