Klarinet Archive - Posting 000203.txt from 1999/10

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 03:54:26 -0400

This procedure ssems almost normal for recordings of Sain-Saens 3.
Roger
S.

On Thu, 7 Oct 1999 LeliaLoban@-----.com wrote:

> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 20:58:09 EDT
> From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
>
>
> Ed Lacy wrote,
> >The whole experience confirmed for me that I am justified in my fears that
> music is about to be irreparably harmed by so-called "sound technicians."
> [snip] We must not let them usurp our responsibilities and privileges as
> musicians. It is the musical perception of musicians that must be the
> arbiter of musical quality, not the uninformed decisions of non-musicians who
> imagine themselves to be experts in all things musical.>
>
> 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?
>
> Of course, recording the soloist and the orchestra in different countries,
> nearly a year apart, saves money, but hey, no need to stop there. With
> digital sound, the engineers can speed up or slow down the tempo from one
> measure to the next without changing the pitch, or sharpen or flatten the
> pitch without changing the tempo. Wrong notes? Synthesize the right notes
> and swap 'em. Video? No sweat: slow down or speed up the pictures, too.
> Michael Murray, a brilliant organist IMHO, doesn't need this kind of "help"
> from an engineer; but I sometimes suspect that certain other musicians never
> do "live" what they seem to do on CDs. Milli Amadeus Vanilli, anyone? Give
> me a fine old Mercury Living Presence stereo recording any day instead of
> this over- engineered mish-mash that junks the relationship of soloist to
> conductor and orchestra, let alone musicians to audience.
>
> Lelia
>
>
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