Tassie Devil Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Time to spare here in NYC before the flight out this afternoon so am passing on thoughts while fresh in mind as a result of 3 music experiences here in the big apple. I've put this post up on Audio Asylum but thought to also share it with you guys. So what does music enjoyment depend upon? [And note I'm referring to both audio and video musical recordings in this essay] Whether recorded or live there are three fundamentals - 1. The mood, health and dispostion of the individual. Bad mood, poor health, tired, .... all affects the ability to appreciate. 2. Familiarity and/or predisposition towards the music involved. If you hate opera it is highly unlikely you will enjoy the live event or if the music is totally unfamiliar, even if you like the genre, then full appreciation is less likely (although can occur of course) 3. The artistic interpretation of the music. This is highly subjective so what appeals to one might not to another but is nevertheless a factor. But there are added hurdles to appreciating recordings - 1. The quality of the reproducing equipment and that includes the room and associated speaker and listener positioning. Again tastes vary so what one person likes, another might not. 2. The technical quality of the recording. If not good, no home equipment will improve it. 3. The recording technique - multitude of mics and mixing gear, placement near or far of mics from performers, ........ And there are added hurdles to the appreciation of live music events - 1. The room/hall acoustics and the seating position in that room/hall. This can be a fundamental pitfall as one seat can give great sound while another can be dead and flat. 2. The audience. This can work both ways. In some cases audience participation can increase mutual enjoyment while in other cases coughs, people who leave mobile phones on, who come late or leave early, who talk, even in whispers, can be a serious detraction. All this has been brought home by the 3 events attended in the last 3 days. So what are these experiences? Tuesday night we attended performances of the New York City Ballet, a group who concentrate more on modern ballet works. At the performance we attended there were 4 ballets accompanied by a live orchestra plus a pianist in the last work (Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 2, modified for the ballet) with the pianist cleverly situated on a side wing of the stage. The orchestral sound from the pit integrated very nicely with the orchestra to yield a very moving experience. The dancing was superb. Yesterday afternoon we attended a matinee performance of the musical “The Chorus Line”. Excellent seating but not a very enjoyable event overall. Again, first class dancing but the music was very ordinary and was canned, accompanied by FM voices with the overall effect anything but pristine “hi-fi”. I couldn’t wait for it to finish. So this dis not set the stage well for a concert last night by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra performing the magnificent Mahler 9th Symphony. So, what, apart from the musical, spoiled enjoyment of the concert? A number of factors prevailed - * we also decided to have a meal after the concert (which started at 7.30 pm) rather than before so attended with a few biscuits and cheese washed down with a glass of Italian wine (courtesy of hotel) - another less than positive predisposing situation * the seats were third tier front row and the most uncomfortable hard theater seats I've had to endure for an hour and three quarters without respite * the acoustics were not good where we sat. Great clarity top to bottom with bottom end bass quite evident but a suck out out frequencies between 80 and 200 hz which meant the music lacked warmth. I wondered if I had been preconditioned to the canned sound of my system but no, the previous night listening to the orchestral sound accompanying the New York City Ballet, there had been both clarity and warmth. * the expected magic of the final Mahler movement failed to materialize because of some unrest from the audience, similarly cramped as myself and perhaps less positively inclined to the composer, with the music punctuated by various audience coughing sort of killing the atmosphere * our seating position seemed to intercept the full blast from the brass which often overwhelmed the rest of the orchestra with a massive sound. Now it could well be that was Mahler's intention and that recordings tone down the balance from that section of the orchestra But the New York Phil is an amazing orchestra and I'm unlikely to ever again experience a sound like it can produce. So it was a little disappointing I was not moved by the music, but that was unlikely to have been the fault of the orchestra but was a combination of personal disposition + the acoustics of the Avery in our seating position. So, the emotional involvement from audio and video recordings in the home can, but not always, be greater than the live event as a number of factors can conspire to make the live concert a lesser experience that it theoretically can be. Such is life. Another music lover is to attend the same Mahler concert tonight so I will be interested to hear back his experience. It will be different of course as the audience will be different, the seating position different, and, surprise surprise, he is a different person!!! John
betty boop Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 interesting post tass, I attended the ballet about a month or so ago and after which was wondering whether to post. especially since I experienced the same performance a couple of nights apart. first time around in a big old hall wiht a live orchestra backing and second time around the same artists but in a modern theatre with a recorded sound track. firstly on the visuals and what you see ..there is no comparison..there is nothing I have seen "on screen" that remotely comes close especially wiht stage lighting that captures the splendid costumes and detail of the scene. I've not seen anything captured like that on screen or reporduced on any screen of any kind as saw with my own eyes ! the audio. the first performance in the big old hall had a full live orchestra vs the second performace in a modern hall had a sound track replayed via a JBL horn loaded audio system. live was actually queiter and yet had better dynamics. the one via the audio system louder coarser sounding and compressed sounding as if it had lower dynamic range, and was almost irritating to listen to. vs the live orchestra which was actually engaging afte all that I really felt theres nothing like live music ! and nothing like watching some thing live
Tassie Devil Posted June 5, 2008 Author Posted June 5, 2008 interesting post tass, I attended the ballet about a month or so ago and after which was wondering whether to post. especially since I experienced the same performance a couple of nights apart. first time around in a big old hall wiht a live orchestra backing and second time around the same artists but in a modern theatre with a recorded sound track.firstly on the visuals and what you see ..there is no comparison..there is nothing I have seen "on screen" that remotely comes close especially wiht stage lighting that captures the splendid costumes and detail of the scene. I've not seen anything captured like that on screen or reporduced on any screen of any kind as saw with my own eyes ! the audio. the first performance in the big old hall had a full live orchestra vs the second performace in a modern hall had a sound track replayed via a JBL horn loaded audio system. live was actually queiter and yet had better dynamics. the one via the audio system louder coarser sounding and compressed sounding as if it had lower dynamic range, and was almost irritating to listen to. vs the live orchestra which was actually engaging afte all that I really felt theres nothing like live music ! and nothing like watching some thing live Agree re live ballet Al, although I'm tipping that the DVD of "Chorus Line" will be more enjoyable than the "live/canned" event we endured. Better sound for sure on our home system and, if intelligently video edited, the visuals should be good. Far too much ballet on DVD does not take advantage of our big screens and has heaps of close ups designed for smaller 4:3 efforts, thereby losing the broad sweep of a lot of ballet. But there is one annoying aspect of recorded opera - the audio does not always correlate with the screen with sound coming in the left channel but video fairly in the centre. They can get it right for movies so should be able to do better for other genre, Maybe it should not be extreme changes in audio, as rapid switching could be offputting, but it could be better than now. Yes, I'll still put myself out to go to live performances but will enjoy the HT in between times. It can be a very good second best amnd can even be preferrable at times. Bus is about to arrive to cart us off to JFK airport so I had better close. John
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