sasaki@harvard.ARPA (Marty Sasaki) (02/21/85)
I find it very interesting that owning a CD of a piece could be more
enjoyable than going to a concert to hear the piece, especially when the
hall is the BSO's Symphony Hall. I don't know what things sound like up
close since I always end up at least 20 rows back, but there simply is
no comparison.
The BSO has really low bass and the stereo imaging is superb. Depth is
very good and there is even a feeling of height, especially when there
is a chorus with the orchestra (usually the chorus stands on a platform
to raise them a bit above the orchestra). Dynamic range is full without
being artificial sounding. Your aural perceptions are augmented by
visual cues as well.
There are bad things about Symphony Hall. Sitting next to someone who
can't breathe without weezing, or next to someone who plays with the
program can be very annoying. The acoustics of Symphony Hall are good
enough that you hear in high fidelity a cough from across the hall. The
crowd also has the annoying habit of leaving with the final notes of the
last piece which means that there are fewer people to applaud for
encores, so that there probably are fewer encores.
It has probably been pointed out here before (I'm new to net.music.-
classical) but live performance and recordings really are two separate
mediums. The note perfectness of recordings often leads to boring
recordings. Live performances often have loads of mistakes but often are
more exciting, the audience interacting with the performers. I am
willing to put up with the wheezers and paper rustlers to hear the BSO
perform live. The recent recordings with Ozawa conducting are not as
good as any of the live concerts. I suspect that there are groups that
record better than they perform live, but I don't think that the BSO is
such a group.
This sort of reminds me of a study done a while ago. A group of children
were given a taste test. They were asked to tell which they preferred,
Tang or freshly squeezed orange juice (pulp strained out). The children
preferred the Tang. The authors went on to discuss what the implication
of children preferring an artificial juice to the real thing. The point
that the authors failed to see was that Tang is not artificial orange
juice, it is something completely different. Their test was equivalent
to asking children to chose between Tang and apple drink.
Except with increadibly good audio equipment in a carefully designed
listening room, comparing the BSO live with the BSO on CD is like
comparing apples and oranges.
--
Marty Sasaki
Havard University Science Center
sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp}
617-495-1270