Dear All, I am fed up with hearing excellent performances ruined by poor
sound engineering.  One of my chief gripes is the positioning of soloists
so close that they could be playing underneath your nostrils.

The orchestra can sometimes sound like it is halfway down the street.

Violinists like Perlman and Mutter have such a close profile on many
of their recordings that they loose a sweetness and delicacy evident in
the concert hall.  One of my favourite PERFORMANCES of Shostakovich's 1st
violin concerto (Jarvi/RSNO/Mordkovich)is undermined by the closeness of
the soloist - she sounds almost percussive in places.  The latest offender
is the otherwise excellent Barber/Meyer coupling featuring the violinist
Hillary Hahn - why couldn't the engineers trust the composer and performers
and grant them a more intergrated, natural sound picture?

Has anyone else noticed this, or it just me?

Regards,

David H.
Nottingham, UK
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