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