John Smyth ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Regarding Mahler Symphony recommendations, I notice many people suggesting
>older recordings. Live performance aside, can a listener really get the
>full impact of a Mahler symphony on a recording before 1970? (Well, 1960)
>Wouldn't this be like trying to appreciate the visual arts through dirty
>glass?
>
>While historical recordings provide education and enlightenment, their
>technical limitations just don't make the performance come alive for
>me.

Well, I specifically left my mono recommendations until the end, because
I do agree that you have a point.  Obviously someone fairly new to Mahler
needs a good stereo recording to learn the work, but many of the greatest
performances are in moderate to poor mono.  Once you are familiar with the
music you can really hear the difference.  I think your analogy is slightly
flawed here.  Perhaps a better one would be that, once one knows the music,
listening to a great historical performance can be like looking through a
dirty glass at a painting of which you've only ever seen a black and white
reproduction.

However, even you date of 1960 is too late:  Paul Kletzki's 1958 Mahler 4
(EMI) needs to make no apologies for recording quality and the performance
is indubitably one of the finest ever.

And, as North American readers will discover later this year, the
newly-restored 1959 live Mahler 8 under Horenstein (BBC Legends), while
not in perfect sound, nevertheless is in more than adequate sound, actually
quite good, and the performance....

>I also cringe when I see someone trying to win over a new-comer to CM by
>playing a composer like Respighi through a cassette deck with two-inch
>speakers.

Cassettes are useful for a) playing music in cars and b) as a means of
copying rare recordings for friends.

They should never be confused with hi-fi...:-)

>(I am the proud owner of Infinity speakers with 18" woofers.)
>
>John (size does matter) Smyth

Well, I take your point, but as the old saying goes a good little'un will
beat a bad big'un any day.

And you'd be surprised at the quality of sound you can get out of a
tiny pair of speakers (admittedly larger than 2") like the legendary
BBC-designed LS3/5As on really good stands (when I had this setup my stands
cost more than the speakers) with a well-designed subwoofer - and even the
speakers in my subwoofer were nowhere near 18".

Deryk Barker
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