Listened to this last night...a great reminder that even though Beethoven himself did the transcription, Beethoven's violin concerto just doesn't work on the piano:
Also worth noting, however: that big dynamic range was intended for concert halls in the days before central HVAC systems, not for small domestic listening rooms with a refrigerator chugging away in the adjacent kitchen at a steady 50 dB level (or whatever), maybe a window unit in the same room, and lots of highway traffic noise coming from a mile away or less. Not to mention planes and traffic helicopters, incessant cell phone conversations, the wife's infernal ever-active TV set ("Oh, I just bought a wedding dress. BOO HOO HOO HOO HOO!" ), microwave ovens whirring away and leaf blowers and car alarms and passing buses and lawn mowers and all the other maddening noise makers that assault the modern home dweller, even the one who strives hard to make that home a refuge. Under those circumstances, getting "written as soft" loud enough to be heard can easily leave "loud" as so loud it blows the windows out. [Edit] Let me hasten to add, I'm in no way arguing for the introduction of "loudness war" type compression in classical recordings--far from it. What I'm suggesting is that there's an art to making records that narrow the dynamic range just enough to prevent "blown windows" syndrome without spoiling the natural sense of scale that a composer was seeking and that good performers try to project. Or, to put it another way, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, in this case dynamic range, but just because you can have too much on occasion doesn't make it any less of a good thing.
That said, I have an impression--I've never scientifically tested it--that often lesser- or little-known musicians toiling in the trenches away from the "superstar" limelight offer much more interesting music-making than the average from their more publicized colleagues. For example, anybody here ever hear of The Munich Trio? Young (at the time, from the CD cover photo, but this CD is hardly new or anything close) players who really "sell" the Franck first piano trio in a way that would be a credit to any capital-B-Big capital-N-Name performers, but there the youngsters are, as far as I can tell largely unknown, playing their hearts out on a beautifully recorded disc from a defunct label (Calig). Same label brought us pianist Gitti Pirner, no spring chicken, indeed someone who's evidently been around for quite a long time, and who plays delectable Mozart and Mendelssohn, and who again is pretty much unknown to the larger music-buying public. Or how about Jorg Ewald Dahler on Claves, one of the elect few who can (or could--dunno if he's still active) make a "fortepiano" actually sing? Anybody else have similar thoughts/impressions/experiences?
I disagree. The place to apply compression is at the listener’s seat, not by altering the dynamic range by mastering to a one size fits all standard. A variable dynamic range control built into the user’s pre-amp makes more sense to me. I live in a rural area in a well insulated home a tenth of a mile from my nearest neighbor. My heating unit and refrigerator were chosen for quiet efficient operation. Much of the the time my ambient noise levels are quite low. In winter, they often measure in the low 30’s dB, A weighted. When traffic is light, there are no vehicles passing my house for sometimes as much as fifteen minutes at a time. At night an hour could pass between cars. At such times, ambient noise goes downs to the low 20’s. I want all the dynamic range that is written in to the score. I don’t have any recordings that have too much dynamic range for my home. I have plenty that are too dynamic for my car, but not for my home. I say, bring it on.
What you are describing sounds like loudspeaker/amp distortion rather than the recording itself. Have you tried listening to the recording using a different system, preferably one designed for high dynamic range, low distortion playback (like a professional system for instance)?
Sure, there are modern exceptions, like Kemal Gekic and Sokolov, but I don't know if I see a pattern in terms of labels. In fact, Sokolov is now with DG and Gekic has recorded for some obscure labels.
I am no electronics expert but I think my amp and speakers are of fairly high quality and I doubt they are distorting. In addition I listen in a small room at low to moderate volume so don't push my equipment hard. My amp is a fairly new Creek 55 watt integrated. I would place the blame more likely on my ears which I know are sensitive and were abused in the past.
Well, that's just it--I don't think there is a pattern; it's more a matter of serendipity as one or another of the "lesser lights" surfaces on some (usually) small specialist label. Of course, I suppose it's just possible that I'm mistaken... Off to work. Have a great and musical day, everyone! (As one of my high school teachers liked to say, "I made a mistake once. I thought I was wrong, but it turned out I was right after all.)
Lucky you! Where's the "I'm jealous" emoticon thingy when you need it? My house is in the crowded DC suburbs, cheek-by-jowl to the not-always-quiet neighbors either side (but at least detached!), and even in the dead of night I hear trucks barreling by on the Washington beltway a mile away. I've done what I can to keep noise levels low (low noise furnace/AC system in our music room addition, for instance), but in a semi-urban setting there's only so much. Maybe I just need to take the "fight fire with fire" approach and stick to things like Glinka's "Travelling Song," Honnegger's "Pacific 231" and Glass's "Short Ride in a Fast Machine"?
Argerich playing Schumann Piano Concerto from the Complete DG Recordings box. Slower than what Schumann marked on his score, but still enjoyable. Richter/Rowicki remains my personal go to.
Last night I listened to Schmidt Symphony No.4 by Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic from 1972 on Decca. Excellent recording.
Now playing CD6 - Piano Concerto No. 3 & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini from the following box, the best Rachmaninoff box out there IMO ...
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is one of those pieces I've heard just too many times, like Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto. I don't really like listening to it anymore.
