TubeNet

I would like to poll the readership on their favorite recorded performances containing great cacks. I mention LP's only, as re-releases may use different masters. A few examples: Ein Heldenleben/bass trbn. (Chicago/Reiner);
Pulcinella/double bass (Marriner/St. Martin-in-the-Fields); Meistersinger/tuba (Toscanini); Beethoven No.3/horn (Vienna/Solti), Vaughan Williams No.4/trpt. (L.S.O.); Ives No.4 (everyone)........Don't submit your high school wind ensemble recording, because you, um, well, you know.......

What is a cack? A wrong note?

Right. A mistake, a clam, mispitching, a temporary inaccuracy, a train wreck etc.
Things we all do.......

Not an LP either sorry
http://youtu.be/XVdfqEmGb8Y" target="_blank

From the Bernstein NYPhil recording of 1958: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77xCN7vbvdE Listen to the horn part 6:12-6:22. Stravinsky was present at the recording sessions, and his first word at the finish was "Wow!" It's a great performance, but this horn blat was a real stinker.

When I was a child we had a recording of the Hallelujah Chorus by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir - in the finale there is a very short break before the last "Hallelujah" and some anonymous choir tenor jumps it by half a beat with a solo croaking "hack" sound.

This would result in cracking up everybody who was listening for that bit - a family favorite!

This was a 1950s recording - I suppose they didn't have all of the editing tools that are available now...

Adam Peck wrote:http://www.abruckner.com/Data/downloads ... 3_flub.mp3" target="_blank

LOL. You won't find that in the score, I don't care which version!

Many moons ago, when the song was new and I was in high school, the guy who was at that time the trumpet professor at UK told me that Chuck Mangione played a wrong note in his own recording of "Feels So Good," which we all heard on the radio at the time.

My theory as a 16 year old was that if it's your composition, you can play whatever notes you want. But at the same time I didn't feel like I could say that guy (who is still around) was simply wrong. It left me stuck on the horns of the dilemma, and I've never felt the need to resolve it, nor have I been able to forget it.

Adam Peck wrote:http://www.abruckner.com/Data/downloads ... 3_flub.mp3" target="_blank

HAHAAHAHA - yeah!

When I was in college, it was comforting to know that even the pros could frack, especially before everything was digitally remastered. I remember listening numerous times to my teacher Abe Torchinsky miss the descending line from the high E in a Midsummer Night's Dream recording with Ormandy. I think there's a recording on LP of Fletcher missing a lick on Previn's Four Outings, too. It doesn't take away a thing from my admiration of their playing abilities. It just helps me to remember we're all human.

Although there was nothing like ProTools to make editing of individual notes easy, it was not impossible to insert, splice, or literally "cut and paste" small portions into a master tape of a studio recording (or even multiple live recordings of the same piece*). Perhaps inattentive ears, or a producer who, watching the budget and the clock, decided, "It's good enough."

Exceptions were the brief period when "Direct-to-Disc" one-pass recordings** were issued to compete with the burgeoning digital recordings (especially pre-CD digital LPs--remember the first Telarc digital LPs of Fennell/Eastman Wind Ensemble that almost made the stylus jump out of the groove when the bass drum was struck during the Holst Suites and the album jacket had a sticker with a warning about playback levels?).

Of course, before the advent of magnetic tape, all recordings went direct-to-disc or shellac or Edison cylinder, offering no opportunity for editing once the recording was complete.

*There are plenty of examples of this kind of editing; one can hear the sudden change in acoustics for a few seconds if the "snippet" was recorded in a different space and/or time from the rest of the master tape.)

**Reminiscent of today's audition videos where the candidate is instructed to play a full 20-minute selection of solos and excerpts from start to finish without any edit or break in the video between pieces...

http://youtu.be/fgzsPoTp2iA

This one makes me laugh every time

Somewhere I have a recording of Saint-Saens' organ symphony, where the trumpet completely wipes out on the last note or two or a solo. And it's not some dinky amateur orchestra, but a famous group (I vaguely remember it may have been Philadelphia under Ormandy).

I'll look it up.