When will there be decent classical music recordings?

Let me respectfully disagree re. Herbert von Karajan legacy, his Beethoven and Bruckner cycles will outlive all of us and our great-grandkids! Just because he embraced digital and DG used skewed RIAA does not make him inherently Evil! True, his Tchaikovsky sounds wrong to the slavic ears, but how could he (or anyone) present the 4th the "right way" if he'd never been immersed into "the birch in the meadow" Russian folk song playing nonstop from almost everywhere?!? 
True, unlike Bernstein he did not waste his life on interpreting Mahler, he (or anyone outside Mama Russia) had never had a chance to present Tchaikovsky the way Mravinsky did, so what?!?!  I still choose Monteaux for the simple beauty of the music, without those extras of "Russian Soul" anguish.
Let me clarify, Karajan is Not my all-time favorite (I dont have any) but to dismiss him as lifeless and digital Evil seems absolutely wrong to my slavic ears...
@tatyana69 check "music in the round" column of Stereophile mag, I cannot afford decent surround but if I could I would have started there. Love your point that given a chance more composers would have used surround-sound effects. Stockhausen with his three orchestras comes to mind but, again, where are the recordings, and where is my surround B&W 800-series speakers :-(   Until then I am going old-school

While "enhancing" instrumental balances and spatial effects may improve the "ear candy" appeal of some Classical music recordings, it will rarely improve the musical intent of the composer or the performers; and will most likely detract from it. It is a well established idea that composers did and do consider the audience’s perspective in a concert hall when composing and scoring. This consideration affects how they score the composition and partly determines which instruments or combination of instruments are assigned to specific musical lines. Some instruments, besides having their own unique tonal color, are capable of "projecting" more than others and this is taken into account. Additionally, good orchestral performers take great pains to blend with their musical colleagues in a way that serves the composer’s intent as indicated by dynamic markings in the score and by established performance values. In an orchestral (and chamber) performance setting this attention to balance and blend is one of the things that creates an environment condusive to really good music making. A good Classical music recording is one that does not interfere with the composer’s or performers’ musical intent. It takes a truly musically astute producer/engineer to not destroy those balances and who will "enhance" only when the limitations of the recording process and venue do not serve the composer’s and performers’ vision. Usually, less is more.

That is a very naughty thing to say Vindanpar. People look for different things in music. The main thrust of my argument is that little has progressed in presentation of classical music for many many years. Maybe a few people here and there think about what can be achieved, but generally they are shameful in sticking to old rut fomulae. Maybe there are enough old skool people out there listening happily to combined  sounds for a blob of music, but I doubt it. You will of course disagree, and so be it. Hail mono. So many old composers loved to push sensitivity and listening experiences, and were often getting into trouble. As I have written before, I would imagine that their fertile minds would leap at the opportunities today. Probably most of the marketplace is pretty conservative, so any reaching out would generally be self indulgent and pointless and will pretty well almost die in due course.
I hate jazz, but was caught up in listening to Box Biedebecke. I kept on wondering how many were in the group. After listening more specifically I realised it was the same number, but they kept on swapping instruments. Why? Well apart from being impressive it lent different textures to basically the same refrains. They understood this concept nearly 100 years ago - but it has meandered nowhere since - especially of you want to listen to the blob of music from 20 yards away without the detail. You look at the score of any symphony and I would take huge sums of money off you betting you could not hear more than 30% of what was going on.
Did composers write so you only heard an impression of what they wrote? Of course not. They wrote all the extra bits you just will not hear because they knew they were writing to satisfy their own mind.
You can hear the blob music on Itunes and so many people are clearly happy at all the limitations of that. 
As a young girl who worked for me once said "Who are the Beatles?"

If recording is important for you in clasical music try try labels like
"Chandos or L'oiseau-Lyre or Harmunia Mundi they have the best recording,  concerning Jazz look for ECM specialy the recording done by
Manfred Eicher

Shanty