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OK - I'm going to use another word in preference to "bad"

About twelve years ago, there was a(n) (in)famous recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Sawallisch on the Water Lily label. (The title was "In Nature's Realm", and it contained music by Liszt and Dvorak.) This recording was made in the old Philadelphia Academy of Music, which, by then (because of all the renovations), had a shockingly bone dry acoustic. My understanding is that some of the orchestra members had such devotion to that hall that they actively lobbied the orchestra management to allow a commercial recording to be made there. They got their wish, and, moreover, they contracted with a company (Water Lily) that was famous for its minimally microphoned (and accurate!) approach to engineering. This album was also a very early instance where a 24/96 recording was actually made available to consumers - I think it even pre-dated DVD-Audio, and was available as a regular, audio-only DVD. But of course, you can imagine the result: what we hear on this recording is the accurate rendering of the hall's bone dry acoustics - very unflattering to the orchestra.

OK, so in one sense, I find this recording woefully lacking in hall reverberation. I keep thinking to myself, geez, why didn't they just record in a better hall? But, in another sense, I do RESPECT this recording, because, now, at least I have an idea as to what music in that hall really sounds like. Sure, I accept your observation that it will sound different in different seats. But, in general, I think this recording captures the quality of the hall - so I DO respect it, and I listen to it every so often (it's now on my computer) with fascination and gratitude!


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