When will there be decent classical music recordings?

No matter how good and big the room is, it will not make a average recording come alive. I believe the COST of making records sound great from big scale works or orchestra are the primary contraint. The venue from where the music are recorded plays a key factor here. Many were recorded in large studio instead of stage hall. The equipments used in recording directly from a hall cost a lot more and the manpower involved multiplies. Experienced recording engineers aren't cheap too.
As mentioned earlier,  many records sound compressed or smeared perhaps due to poor recording environment and modest equipments used in the first place. There's a limit on how much a mixing engineer can do to replicate that event if the original master tape are poorly done. 
I've heard great records done by Japanese labels, their CDs don't come cheap even today. Try YouTube for Joe Hisaishi, he's the top composer, conductor and pianist himself. His productions on CDs and DVDs are always great. From the beginning to the end of making a CD, it takes a lot of effort,  time and money for an orchestra to sound good. 

I saw an quite interesting musical presentation several years back at Inhotim Museum and Botanical Gardens in Minas Gerais Brazil. It consisted of 40 B&W monitor speakers setting up an oval with the listener in the middle. of this quite large space. The musical selection was a Bach piece. Each speaker represented a voice or instrument. Each instrument/voice made an individual entry as is often typical in Baroque music but I must say there was nothing at all typical about the presentation. By the time all voices/instruments were playing one was surrounded by all these individual voices/instruments clear and discernable. The ultimate surround sound, maybe better than live? :)

I have several uniquely recorded albums (LP's) on the "Repeat" label. They were recorded without using microphones in producing the master tapes.

According to the liner notes, "all musical instruments employed being equipped with specially-designed transducing systems which convert the energy of the original sound source into a corresponding electrical signal. This output is then fed directly through the recording mixer and onto tape."

These recordings have the most "presence"  of individual instruments in my entire collection, including any of the so-called audiophile recordings I own. Do they sound "better?"  Well, yes, from a "presence" standpoint ... but there is something that is just not right. Oh yes, they have the "wow" factor, but as a steady diet? No way. Totally interesting though. 

Here's the titles if your intersted in tracking them down:

1. Western Swing - Noel Boggs on steel guitar along with fiddles, guitar, drums and bass. 

2.   Rural Rythm - Fiddle, fife guitar and bass. 

3.  Borodin string quartet #2  in D Major. The Da Sallo String Quartet. 

4.  Dvorak Quintet in G, Opus 77. Two violins, Viola, Cello and bass.

Anyone of these LP's will satisfy the most detail and presence audiophile freak on the planet. Really fun to listen to ... for the first few times. Great for demonstrating your stereo to friends. Lot's of "wow" factor. 

So, all of that "extra presence" the OP is seeking is/was available, but a steady diet of it? I don't think so. 

Jump on this one, guys: 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Norman-Whistler-Ted-Nash-Rural-Rhythm-Repeat-Records-RS-300-4-Dee-Ford-/1219...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NORMAN-WHISTLER-THE-RURAL-RYTHM-MASTERS-RURAL-RYTHM-VINYL-LP-REPEAT-RECORDS-...


Frank

One little-mentioned label that offered Classical music with a very "immediate" sound that included low-level instrument sounds was Ark Records (LP only), Robert Fulton's (70's speaker designer) label. REALLY good sounding recordings, like direct-to-disc.

I think Tatyana69 is focusing on listening to the sound, texture, and detail of each instrument.  If taken to an extreme, most music lovers would consider this secondary enhancement or detraction from a musical experience. To me this emphasis is the tail wagging the dog. The power of a string quartet is not hearing the body cavity resonances of each instrument (though if captured realisticly it could be an enhancement), but the music itself.