Post by hiredfox November 1, 2013 (1 of 56)
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Valery Gergiev's 2013 Berlioz project with the LSO was off to a rip roaring start last night at The Barbican with well rehearsed performances of Waverley and Symphonie Fantastique that almost literally brought the house down. In between Karen Cargill gave us her beautiful rendition of "Summer Nights" which of course was released on Linn with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in June. Many more treats are in store for Berlioz aficionados this autumn and if they all match these performances then we are indeed the lucky ones.
The concert was recorded as usual by Classic Sounds and I noticed some tweaking of microphone positions with the central array slightly further back and the rear-most acoustic mikes seemingly rather closer to the ceiling. On the other hand Gergiev had assembled a huge orchestra for the main work which required a forward stage extension, which may have been more of an influence on miking than any attempt to address SQ concerns that always crop up on here about LSO Live products. For future disc listeners it is also worth noting that the positions of 2nd Violins and Cello / Basses was reversed for the Symphony to give better balance on the stage during the pastoral movement predominantly.
Provided that Classic Sounds do a half decent job at transcribing this performance onto disc you are all in for one hell of a treat. This was a searingly intense and highly concentrated reading that was truly awe-inspiring (and ear splitting) in its impact; of course don't we just love the drop of the guillotine even 'though it was only part of the dream... here it's abruptness was numbing. Gergiev is clearly at ease with the control of large scale forces as we have seen so often before but never at the expense of detail and his rapport with this orchestra is self-evident from the brilliant almost virtuosic playing of every single musician. There is no place to hide in Berlioz most brilliantly innovative composition and nobody did or even wanted to. A standing ovation was almost obligatory.
In all honesty it seems to me to be highly improbable that the intricate and dynamic playing of such a large assembly of musicians as we heard last night could ever be captured faithfully on disc, on this occasion I would almost bet against it; but the ball is well and truly in James Mallinson's court this time and let's hope for all our sakes he doesn't drop it because believe me this was the best performance of Symphonie Fantastique I have heard live or on disc ever.
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Please tell me that this will be released on blu-ray with multi-channel audio AND high-def. video. I am a sucker for S.F. I hope that it tops my favorite rendition which is Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra on Telarc sa-cd. Thomas and the S.F. orchestra on "keeping Score" is, to me, a VERY close second.
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Steve Steckel: Have any LSO live recordings EVER been issued as BD's ?
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Post by Fugue November 1, 2013 (5 of 56)
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Can you hazard a guess as to the total number of microphones? Ideally, five ought to cover it: three for left, center, right (one each), and two in the rear to capture the hall's ambience.
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Fugue said:
Can you hazard a guess as to the total number of microphones? Ideally, five ought to cover it: three for left, center, right (one each), and two in the rear to capture the hall's ambience.
I heard this second-hand:
Simple miking does not produce as good a sound as skillful multi-miking. A comparison was made between the five channels of a surround recording and with the full set of (However many spot mikes) and the sound was more like the sound in the hall with the "sweetening" of the spot mikes included. I think microphones do not hear like the human ear; so engineers do what they can to capture as well as they can, the sound their ears hear in the hall.
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Fugue said:
Can you hazard a guess as to the total number of microphones? Ideally, five ought to cover it: three for left, center, right (one each), and two in the rear to capture the hall's ambience.
Ideally, microphones would hear like the human ear. They do not.
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Post by Fugue November 1, 2013 (8 of 56)
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Telarc used to get some pretty impressive results with just three mics. Of course, the hall must have great acoustics and the conductor has to have a sensitive ear for balancing. When I used to record my local symphony, I used three main mics and a pair of spot mics over the winds--those recordings sounded pretty good if I do say so myself!
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Post by hiredfox November 1, 2013 (9 of 56)
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Ubertrout said:
How does the performance compare to Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique etc. - Gergiev ?
This I cannot answer. We do not have the earlier recording. It would be quite a challenge to compare a live performance not yet on disc with a PCM derived disc recording. Last night's concert may or may not be a success on disc.
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Post by hiredfox November 1, 2013 (10 of 56)
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Fugue said:
Can you hazard a guess as to the total number of microphones? Ideally, five ought to cover it: three for left, center, right (one each), and two in the rear to capture the hall's ambience.
There were 5 small mikes in the overhead central array, two very large ones (sorry I don't know the type by sight) one to each side of the array at the same height and at least three hanging mikes over our part of the auditorium (front stalls) about 3 feet down from the ceiling. I couldn't see further back over the circle area due to the layout of the Barbican Concert Hall.
Quite a few on-stage stand mikes but it was hard to count them from our seats due to the lighting arrangements. We're up there again next week for the next session so will check and see what differences if any from last night.
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