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I know this has been posted on before. Van Cliburn performing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 at the Carnegie Hall, recorded in Living Stereo. I've owned the LP for years and love this historic recording. I just bought the SACD and as soon as I heard the opening chords on the piano a huge smile crossed my face then tears of joy followed.This is a remarkable audio document.
The inevitable question of how RCA engineers produced a recording almost half a century ago which would shame the majority of modern digital recordings has to be asked.This is a front row seat experience unveiled fully by the SACD transfer. It is simply priceless.
Follow Ups:
About the same time RCA also produced my all time favorite Tchaikovsky piano concerto No.1, Friz Reiner CSO with Emil Gilels piano, this one was recorded in CSO hall before its acoustics were permanently destroyed by that sorry remodeling job, an incredible performance and recording.
Actually, that recording of Fritz Reiner conducting Chicago Symphony, with Emil Gilels was recorded several years earlier. I think it was recorded in 1955, one of the stereo experimental reels.
Yes, it was recorded in 1955, I bought my first copy while living overseas on a British pressing, on "His Masters Voice", later I got USA RCA Red Seal, another one on Victrolla, a horrible pressing.
Well, no question about it. Too bad many people nowadays think the piano tone of this recording sounds a bit honky-tonky. They should realize that this is the typical tone of Steinway piano that you can hear in the actual concert halls, and it's not honky-tonky at all. Most piano recording nowadays are too close a miking that causes an unusually pump in the bass frequency. It doesn't sound very natural acoustically, but many audiophiles love that sound and used to it.
that recording is a good reproduction of the way that hall sounds. The piano always sounds a bit thin and midrangish on most Carnegie recordings unless the engineer sticks a dozen mikes into the case. Piano by far is the hardest instrument to record properly. Well maybe not, but there are plenty engineers who know how to make a mess of it.
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
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