[ARSCLIST] How could anybody ever have thought this was acceptable? Rant

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've just been listening to a recording of Rachmaninoff's 3rd Concerto which 
keeps shifting between the piano present and the orchestra a mile away and the 
orchestra up close and the piano sounding as if it's at the wrong end of a 
flooded subway tunnel. At no point is there anything remotely resembling "balance".

And no it's not the Horowitz atrocity from the 70s..it's Gilels from 1955.

I mean we occasionally make allowances for historical documents and legendary 
performances that could only be captured on the fly, but this was 1955 for 
cryin' out loud! Did anybody at the time think this was a "good" recording? I 
would have fired the producer, or at least demoted him to recording oompah bands.

dl