David Harbin wrote:

>I am tired of engineers heavily miking star violinists / violists.  For
>example, many of Pearlman's recordings make him sound beefy.  I am told
>that, live, he can sound much sweeter.

I couldn't agree more!  I had the Brahms Piano Trios with Perlman,
Ashkenazy, and Harrell, and ended up selling it to a second hand shop.
The violin is recorded so closely that I find it painful to listen to.

Another really bad recording, where the violin soloist is recorded too
closely is the Bach Violin Concerti with Manze and the Academy of Ancient
Music.

I've also been very disappointed by recordings of the Emerson Quartet.
The engineers apparently miked each instrument (with one or two mikes)
and mixed the four tracks to create the desired placement of the
instruments.  Much of the natural beauty of the music is lost as a result
of this aggressive intervention by the engineers.  This seems to be a
common technique for recording string quartets.

I am more sensitive to this kind of flaw because I do most of my listening
with headphones, with very good equipment.

I suspect that part of the cause is money and competition in the music
market.  A loud, in your face sounding recording will invariably sell
better than a "musical" recording of the same music.

Mike Leghorn
Evanston, IL