DG Recordings

The CDs aren't crap, and you don't have a hearing problem. Many DGs can sound fine, many can sound awful. My complaint about DG has always been their multi-miking and (with their output from the early digital days particularly) an overall bright sound and lack of deepest bass (after hearing the Copland 3rd Symphony with Bernstein on DG, you wouldn't believe there was a bass drum in the score), and the fact that they rely entirely on their "tonmeister" to recreate a musical event instead of letting the event speak for itself. I prefer to hear what the orchestra says more than the recording engineer. If you read an article from TAS a few years back about a DG Met Opera orchestra recording attended by one of the writers, their were a whole slew of mikes, everything was run through a mixing board where it was processed and manipulated and adjusted by the tonmeister, and the orchestra only played short passages of the piece at a time. However, despite all that, the writer gave the finished recording a "Golden Ear" award, because the end result worked!! I find that there are a number of DG recordings, particularly the live ones and smaller ensembles, which can sound quite good and I listen to a lot, but there are some where the end result with an orchestra is bright, thin and almost unlistenable, or where instruments are spotlighted unrealistically. In the last case mentioned, that sometimes can work well with the music; then I try to pretend I'm in the orchestra listening instead of the audience. On the whole, their recent recordings seem to have have solved the bass and shrillness problems to a large extent; it's their recording philosophy that bothers me more than anything else, I guess. I can't help but think that the artists making the recording can't give their best, most spontaneous performance, particularly if performing small parts of a piece at a time.

I can only add to Rc that, if the performance we want is on DG, then we'll have to live with it. And I agree it's not always that bad. My point is that we can extraolate until death (God forbid) do us part how it could have been better, but the important part is we have the performance -- which is the price in the first place. And DG & EMI have a treasure of performances in their archives and I, for one, want those... and I don't have a choice regarding the sound quality, do I (do we all?). Go for the performance that makes you jump out of seat, I say! Cheers

Aliu,
No, you don't have a taste problem or a hearing problem. In my experience, I was perfectly happy with every cd I listened to on my relatively inexpesive stereo setup. Then I upgraded. At first, I really didn't hear a difference and wondered if all this hifi stuff was a scam. But when I hooked up my older system a few months later, I really heard the difference. Same thing with going from poorly made cd's to better ones. The differences are not at first very apparent until you get used to a new standard. After a while, your ears will have done some passive learning and there is no turning back.

If you are happy with what you hear, and you do not yearn to hear something better, then be happy. You don't need to spend much money to enjoy music.

I am sure I am one of those people who was critical of DG. I can agree with everything said above. I own some DG because I like the performance. I just wish they were mixed better.

Sadly I find some of their historic reissues not as good as earlier releases. I am speaking specifically of the "DG Originals"; the ones where the CD looks like a mini-LP. I bought a couple and came to the quick conclusion on concertos that they boosted the violins and the soloist on the remix. They really stick out. This sounds good in the car where noise drowns out the detail anyway; or on a portable or boombox that has no detail. The bass detail is also missing as mentioned by others. I have found a few of the older or original CD releases of these recordings on eBay, and there is more bass in the old CDs, so they actually made it worse (amazing).

In the CD of the Dvorak Cello Concerto with Rostropovich/Von Karajan, the old CD has all the nuances in Rostropovich's playing which is more in the lower cellos notes., Also some of the inner detail in the orchestra is apparent. In the new "DG Originals" the main theme played by Rostropovich and the violins is a lot clearer and pronounced, however, all the background detail and nuances in the lower notes is gone.

What I will say positively about the DG Originals project, is they did release some new (old) material never on CD before that is worth owning for the performances. (I do have some of the real orginals on LP.)

Great artists, poor sound.