How can they ...?

[Dave2002]

Listening to Record Review this morning AM commented that the sound quality on Frans Bruggen's recently released Mozart Symphony CD is hard to like. Indeed, this seems to be the case, which is a great shame, as from the excerpts there seemed to be considerable merits in the performance. Perhaps it's unfair to expect live events to result in good recordings, but is it not possible do better than this from a concert in Rotterdam from 2010? AM clearly thinks that there is worth in these performances, and having heard Bruggen live a few years ago, and also based on what I could hear through the aural fog, I'd give this some credibility. It is a shame though.

Perhaps recordings are only planned afterwards!

[richardfinegold]

Perhaps recordings are only planned afterwards![/QUOTE]

I doubt that. I think most recordings these days are based from recorded concerts. The sound can range from breath taking to mediocre. I think that if someone is recording a concert in this day and age they surely suspect that the results may be released commercially.

[Thropplenoggin]

Interestingly, the same comment has been made about most of these live Bruggen releases on Glossa - Bach, Beethoven, etc.

[Sir Velo]

My problem with "live" recordings is that while they used to be mementoes of special events (think Richter/Sofia recital; Furtwangler's Bayreuth Beethoven 9; or Karajan's legendary 1982 Mahler 9), they have now become as regimented and sterile as studio recordings were thought to be. This all prompts the thought, "why bother?" A true live recording should be a performance captured on the wing, as it were, where the circumstances of the performance make quest for sonic perfection an irrelevance. Then, if the performance warrants it, it can be released. Otherwise just let it linger on in the memory of those who attended.

[Dave2002]

Interestingly, the same comment has been made about most of these live Bruggen releases on Glossa - Bach, Beethoven, etc.

It's a real shame. I can't really understand why artists would want to have such a relatively poor representation of their work put out, though of course in the case of artists past we are grateful to have what we can. For living artists, unless they fear that the recordings would actually sound better than their live performances (unlikely), and are out to maximise profits by making people attend live performances, I doubt that this could be the case.

I wonder what recording philosophy the Glossa engineers have?

Over the years my views on recordings have changed, slightly, and I suspect that the views of some recording engineers have changed too. Practical and commercial considerations also come into play, though I still feel that many of the best recordings have been made in good venues with fairly simple microphone placements. Multi tracking, close miking and mixing may have their place, as also adding in artificial reverberation, but mostly I feel that some more complex techniques don't really work. However, there seem some venues for which, for me at any rate, recordings are usually pretty bad - and I'm thinking Barbican here.

Recording from live concerts must present additional problems, but some engineers and organisations have in the past managed to do quite well, sometimes in spite of other factors. I once went to a concert in Sweden where the microphones were mounted quite high up on tall stands with moderately flexible mounts at the top. They visibly swayed during the performances, but the sound on the broadcast showed no obvious sign of that having a bad effect, and the balance was good. Possibly only two microphones were used at that chamber concert - unless there were others hidden from my line of sight.

The Glossa Bruggen recording from CD Review had different faults from Barbican recordings, but surely it should have been possible to do better than that. It just sounded very muddy, and I'd be interested to know if there are any obvious reasons why that should come about, such as using stands on a wooden floor. If the company is repeating the faults in each new recording, perhaps someone should let the engineers know, so that they can try better next time, as I'm sure the performances would justify the effort.