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