"Pictures" - Reiner, Chicago Symphony... After lis

[Billy M.]

-tening...I am disappointed. While I love Jake's sound and really felt he recorded quite well, it isn't enough to make it what some say is better than most other recordings of "Pictures At An Exhibition". My intention of course is to have a great recording of a fine tubist, but the other things must be included such as how the strings, woodwinds, percussion, and rest of the brass do in the performance.

To my semi-trained ear I heard some bad entrances by strings in pivotal places as well as bad intonation on part of some of the winds in highly exposed parts. I also felt balance was off in the brass in places. These things added up after a while and I had to come to my final conclusion of saying I may use this recording for reference of great tuba playing, but nothing more. Call it blasphemous if you will, but I know what I like and what sounds better in-ear.

My personal favorite is George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra performing "Pictures" on the Sony Classics Expanded Edition. Better all around recording. Not to mention that Chester Roberts himself is quite impressive as a performer on this CD too. Love his sound!

[Stefan]

There is nothing wrong with having an opinion about a recording. I will agree that compared to todays more recent recordings, recordings from the 50's and early 60's do not have quite as high a standard. Consider that the level of competition has only been greater since then - hell, it seems that back then, you just had to know somebody to get in. At least I have heard tons of stories like that. Anyway, I feel the overall playing level is higher these days.

Still, I love the Reiner recordngs and I have a bunch of them. Keep in mind these were recorded with one mike and the fancy mixing and editing was not used as heavily, if at all. A lot of modern recordings are just portions of takes and performances put together. In the Reiner years, the CSO was going through major changes in the level of performance. Reiner was a real slave driver, from what I have heard. Compared to other recordings from the same era, there is no comparison - IMHO.

[Tom Mason]

The recording you mention and the Pines/LeMer set from the same era. I am using them in some of my music classes in giving examples of orchestras of the era and recording techniques.

In the Pines/LeMer notes, Reiner is described as having recorded the entire session in one take, and using very little equipment. Stories about firing musicians who create noise are notated as well.

Recording technology had come a long way since those times. Even with that said, I don't know too many recording techs who would want to use 1 mike for the recording session.

You find missed entrances when you encounter live/live recording music. Sometimes, you have to listen around these if you want to find enjoyment from the performance in a larger sense.

That being said, I do enjoy the LeMer/Pines more than the Pictures.

Tom

[brianf]

BTW - I hope you are not assuming that Mr Jacobs played the Bydlo on the Reiner recording. He didn't - Bob Lambert did.

[Billy M.]

BTW - I hope you are not assuming that Mr Jacobs played the Bydlo on the Reiner recording. He didn't - Bob Lambert did.

Nope... never made the assumption, was admiring Mr. Jacobs' phat sound in all the contrabass parts...

[tubaman5150]

I want to add something.
I wish to address the misconception that top professional players and their orchestras do not miss notes. Another side of it is that if a player or an orchestra misses notes, they can't be that good.
Total and complete hogwash.
It is true that top players miss very few notes and those that they do miss are well hidden or easily forgotten. This is so because they have such a beautiful sound, intonation, and musicanship as well as great accuracy.

Related to that:
I would also like do away with the fallacy that if a player misses any notes, he/she will be terminated. Untrue.
I would say that if a player doesn't have the nerve to play under pressure and it causes him/her to miss notes. Maybe then.
An occasional "clam" is inevitable.

A lot of modern recordings are just portions of takes and performances put together.

This is so true. With modern editing software its a snap to "punch out" a missed note or splice a passage. I would also venture to say that many of my favorite recent recordings have had such editing. This does not mean that they can't handle their instrument. Older recordings were often one full take out of a slew of several full takes over several hours. I doubt many would be so polished as the Reiner CSO under those circumstances
People are human. Even the best of us.

[Roger Lewis]

the Early recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy of Pictures. Mr. Torchinsky sounds incredible, great strings and great winds - a truly nice rendition. The cover has a lot of blobs of paint on it.