Hi David,
I know the Command label through some of their classical recordings. As I recall, the classical records sound as though the master tape must be pretty well engineered, but they were pressed on poor vinyl and I've never found any that sound very good from my used purchases due to their poor condition surfaces (even after a good cleaning). I now don't try to buy them.
I agree with you about a pattern with the DGG recording engineers. I need to go back and listen with this in mind, too. I have found a few later DGG orchestral recordings that I thought sounded really good, so I'll have to do some comparative listening and find the key. FWIW, the recording I thought was well engineered was recorded by Hans-Peter Scheigmann, Stravinsky's Violin Concerto with Perlman and Ozawa (2531 110). I've also liked some of the work by Werner Wolf and Klaus Scheibe. All three tend to deliver a more natural listening perspective in their recordings.
Right now I'm listening to a recording made by one of my heroes, Kenneth Wilkinson, on Lyrita: Alan Rawsthorne's Symphony No. 1 on Lyrita SRCS 90. Really nice that he could be making recordings such as this at the same time as he was making some excessively over-miked muck for Decca in LA and Chicago. This recording harks back to his premier earlier days with Decca.
.
I know the Command label through some of their classical recordings. As I recall, the classical records sound as though the master tape must be pretty well engineered, but they were pressed on poor vinyl and I've never found any that sound very good from my used purchases due to their poor condition surfaces (even after a good cleaning). I now don't try to buy them.
I agree with you about a pattern with the DGG recording engineers. I need to go back and listen with this in mind, too. I have found a few later DGG orchestral recordings that I thought sounded really good, so I'll have to do some comparative listening and find the key. FWIW, the recording I thought was well engineered was recorded by Hans-Peter Scheigmann, Stravinsky's Violin Concerto with Perlman and Ozawa (2531 110). I've also liked some of the work by Werner Wolf and Klaus Scheibe. All three tend to deliver a more natural listening perspective in their recordings.
Right now I'm listening to a recording made by one of my heroes, Kenneth Wilkinson, on Lyrita: Alan Rawsthorne's Symphony No. 1 on Lyrita SRCS 90. Really nice that he could be making recordings such as this at the same time as he was making some excessively over-miked muck for Decca in LA and Chicago. This recording harks back to his premier earlier days with Decca.
.