Prom 17: Hallé – Debussy/VW/Elgar (30.07.15)

[Serial_Apologist]

Lovely performance of the RVW, though I would have preferred not to have had to leap up after the opening as the choirs entered in order to turn up the volume considerably, when one would have thought it preferable to have been able to do this right at the start. Shouldn't the engineers should have been ready for the powerful loud music to come?

[BassOne83]

Ah! A fellow Lloyd fan.

[BassOne83]

Don't be daft. Have you ever sung in a choir at this (or any) level?

[BassOne83]

Both the RVW and Debussy now on iPlayer.

[Serial_Apologist]

Don't be daft. Have you ever sung in a choir at this (or any) level?

Who - me?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Lovely performance of the RVW, though I would have preferred not to have had to leap up after the opening as the choirs entered in order to turn up the volume considerably, when one would have thought it preferable to have been able to do this right at the start. Shouldn't the engineers should have been ready for the powerful loud music to come?

I think we've been here before. The technicians can't win. Some people will be clamouring for the dynamic range actually achieved by the musicians in the live situation (preferably with the same sound balance) whilst others prefer a sound which feels comfortable at home, involving tinkering by technicians to reduce the dynamics and bring solo voices forward.

I'm well and truly in the first camp, but I'm in the minority.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think we've been here before. The technicians can't win. Some people will be clamouring for the dynamic range actually achieved by the musicians in the live situation (preferably with the same sound balance) whilst others prefer a sound which feels comfortable at home, involving tinkering by technicians to reduce the dynamics and bring solo voices forward.

I'm well and truly in the first camp, but I'm in the minority.

I would certainly prefer a more realistic ratio between the various volume levels actually taking place. After all, this was what was achieved back in the late 1960s when my father and I started bootlegging stuff off Radio 3 onto reel-to-reels. Whatever people may say to the contrary, I still have the tapes to prove this! Maybe it was easier to achieve before stereo radio came in. But in the absense of what I feel should be technologically possible with today's knowledge and experience, one would have expected the sound people to have looked at the score and said to themselves, hey look, it gets much louder five minutes in; we'd better keep the sliders down at the start so as not to create the totally false impression which will forever stay with people that the score markings have suddenly just changed from forte at the beginning to piano, and baritone soloist has moved far away over there somewhere.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I would certainly prefer a more realistic ratio between the various volume levels actually taking place. After all, this was what was achieved back in the late 1960s when my father and I started bootlegging stuff off Radio 3 onto reel-to-reels. Whatever people may say to the contrary, I still have the tapes to prove this! Maybe it was easier to achieve before stereo radio came in. But in the absense of what I feel should be technologically possible with today's knowledge and experience, one would have expected the sound people to have looked at the score and said to themselves, hey look, it gets much louder five minutes in; we'd better keep the sliders down at the start so as not to create the totally false impression which will forever stay with people that the score markings have suddenly just changed from forte at the beginning to piano, and baritone soloist has moved far away over there somewhere.

You make some very good points S-A.

I have a few off-air reel-to-reel recordings from the 1970s, and these are very fine indeed - and in stereo.