Karl Miller wrote:
>I was reminded of when I was younger and listened to classical
>radio...back when there was classical radio...
>
>I got the point where I could, more often than not, guess which
>orchestra was performing a piece, just from the sound of the orchestra.
>It might have had something to do with the sound of the halls, who
>engineered, the style of the performance, but it seems to me that it is
>more difficult telling the differences...perhaps because my hearing isn't
>as good, or because recording engineers are less subjective in the way
>they record, or the recording technology is more standardized...or
>because...
Yup, Karl --
Back in music school (and I know this sounds ominously like "back at
band camp"), it was the sport to play drop-the-needle and name the
orchestra. I echo your thought that this was much easier formerly, and
I maintain further that it's not the fact that we're aging (aged?), but
that orchestras, especially American orchestras, have become homogenized.
(I also feel soloists have become homogenized, but that's a screed for
a different day!)
One could quickly identify an orchestra through its solo oboist (think:
Lifschey vs. H. Gomberg vs. R. Gomberg vs. Still vs. Delancie),
or the sound of the brass or string choirs, or...
I have a bumper-sticker: "You're not getting old/The music just sucks."
Inelegant? Accurate?
Cheers from So. Cal,
Roger Lebow
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