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Why do all Mahler recordings seem too bright?

Yes - I may be exaggerating but I haven’t yet found any recordings of his symphonies that properly balance the extra treble energy that are often part of the dynamic swings.  Part of the problem may be that I’m not sure I yet actually “like” Mahler’s music though there are moments that are exquisite.  But, I can’t get through a whole piece because the recordings hurt my ears.  

As a side note - I have been on both sides of a microphone - having been a musician in the past and also having recorded/mixed a number of orchestral concerts at a performing arts center.  Pre-pandemic I would go to orchestral concerts regularly. So - I do have at least some reference.

I have some recordings (they were given to me) that are positively unlistenable (a DG recording of his 5th may be singularly the worst recording I’ve heard).

I thought the hi res versions of San Francisco by MTT might be the ticket.  While better, they still seem too bright and harsh to me.

Perhaps it’s my system that’s too bright, or perhaps something else is going on but I’ve plenty of other classical music that sounds better. We’ll recorded jazz and acoustic, too. 

Of course I can find poor recordings in any genre, but I’d welcome recommendations from my fellow forumites of some Mahler recordings that I might try.  I’d love to be able to listen to the closing moments of the 2nd at reasonable volume - without cringing.  

 

 

mgrif104
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,691 posts
 

@kr4 I wasn’t addressing brightness in the Ivan Fisher recordings, should have separated the two thoughts. My issue is with many modern day Bruckner digital recordings. There is emphasis on the brass (trumpets and trombones) due to over mic’ing or in the mix. The recordings are not balanced in a ff or fff passage. Adagios are usually well mixed.

I was not addressing brightness in the Fischer recordings of Mahler but giving this as an example of what I think is a well-balanced Bruckner recording. 

The reason I mention Bruckner is due to the large scale orchestra close in size to Mahler. I’ve seen quite a few Bruckner performances where 5 trumpets and 5 trombones are used. That's a lot of microphones being used for recordings.

Why do you corelate the number of instruments with the the number of microphones?

lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 

Typically the second movement such as an adagio is well balanced and can sound heavenly. Bruckner wrote such beautiful adagios.

Why do you corelate the number of instruments with the the number of microphones?

Because some engineers in the heyday of multi mic'ing would place a mic on each individual instrument instead of 2 or 3 per section. Some conductors, particularly Karajan liked to be involved in engineering the production process. He wanted everything micd. 

kr4's avatar
kr4
3,691 posts
 

lowrider57 wrote:  Because some engineers in the heyday of multi mic'ing would place a mic on each individual instrument instead of 2 or 3 per section. Some conductors, particularly Karajan liked to be involved in engineering the production process. He wanted everything micd. 

Yeah, many used to do that.  Less common now and, strangely, even less  (relatively speaking) with multichannel recordings.  The ones that sound best in 5 channels used 5 mics, perhaps with a spot 1-2.

jim5559
604 posts
 

Buy BIS and you will have no problem , by far the best company.

As many have said the Minnesota /Vanska is fantastic as is Karl Neilson .

Ivan Fisher is a strong second .

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