Concert hall or front room?

[LaciDeeLeBlanc]

And this genuinely shocks me!

I have dozens of recordings which give me goosebumps, even after hearing each of them dozens of times.

Some of my recordings can do that, but again, not like a live performance.

[Mark]

Tonight's Prom is being re-broadcast next Monday afternoon.  I'd be interested, if Mark's able to hear that, in how he thinks it compares with what he heard in the hall tonight.

It's already safely on my PVR. Made sure I captured it as it was broadcast live. I'll listen to the playback in a couple of days, and if I still think it's great, I'll strip the audio track and post it up here.

[Novi]

Some interesting responses here ... even the digression about 'appropriate' dress.

I'm just back from seeing and hearing Kurt Masur conduct not one but two orchestras (playing together as one: LPO and Orchestre National de France) in Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. My reaction? WOW! Much as I enjoy hearing both works at home, hearing them live tonight really revealed new things about each. The Serenade's beautiful Elegie took on another dimension because I could see which musicians created which sounds and contributed to the wonderful whole; and the Bruckner scherzo never sounded to me so alive. A truly ear-opening experience, as it almost always is when I go to a concert (I have The Magic Flute to look forward to next Thursday at the Barbican ... better dress right for the bouncers! ).

But still, buzzing as I usually am right after a concert, and incredible as it is seeing music made - more so for me; being non-musical in any practical sense makes me view music's creation as a kind of act of magic - I still prefer home listening. For me, there's greater intimacy, because as I said, I do most listening through headphones. And unless I'm listening to a 'live' recording, there's no coughing. Man, you should've heard it tonight! When I attend a concert, I'm reverential - you get more sound in a vacuum than you do out of me in a hall. But other people can't stop fidgeting, talking, whispering and bloody coughing. Oh, and slamming a door ... right in a quiet section of that beautiful Elegie I mentioned.

Mark, that's interesting what you say about tonight's performance. I missed the Tchaikovsky but heard the second half on the radio but unfortunately, it didn't quite do it for me . It just didn't come alive for me - I found it a bit dull and the horns especially a bit scrappy. I'm quite prepared to admit that I wasn't in a 'proper' listening frame of mind though and was only giving it cursory attention. I guess what was missing for me with the radio on as background music was the sense of an 'event.' I did, however, notice the conspicuous coughing and fully sympathise with your frustration .

I get what you say about the intimacy of headphone listening because it's just you and the music and nothing else. But I like to think of it as being another form of intimacy during a live performance because the musicians are playing in response to their immediate environment of which the audience is a part. I feel there's something almost personal in this relationship between player and audience that is also quite spontaneous. Hmm, it's late at night and I don't think I'm making much sense here .   

OT ... be sure to report on The Magic Flute .

[M forever]

Thanks, M. Duly noted. I'll keep my eyes peeled for their next (solo) appearance.

You definitely should. What's so amazing about that sound is that it's not just very subtly colorful, but it's also amazingly finetuned in a way in which the individual sections really sound together and add up in sound rather than "competing" and not really adding up. The effect is that the sound can be extremely rich and "big" without being forcedly loud. They played Daphnis et Chloé once in Berlin under Maazel and it was stunning how the sound in some tutti passages filled the room in very hard to describe way. It was light and transparent but at the same time very full and at the climaxes also enormously "loud", but not in a blary way, it was just that the sound was everywhere in the room. You had a feeling as if you could get up and float across the room to the other side of the hall. I did not attempt that, though.

[Mark]

Mark, that's interesting what you say about tonight's performance. I missed the Tchaikovsky but heard the second half on the radio but unfortunately, it didn't quite do it for me . It just didn't come alive for me - I found it a bit dull and the horns especially a bit scrappy. I'm quite prepared to admit that I wasn't in a 'proper' listening frame of mind though and was only giving it cursory attention. I guess what was missing for me with the radio on as background music was the sense of an 'event.' I did, however, notice the conspicuous coughing and fully sympathise with your frustration .

I get what you say about the intimacy of headphone listening because it's just you and the music and nothing else. But I like to think of it as being another form of intimacy during a live performance because the musicians are playing in response to their immediate environment of which the audience is a part. I feel there's something almost personal in this relationship between player and audience that is also quite spontaneous. Hmm, it's late at night and I don't think I'm making much sense here .   

OT ... be sure to report on The Magic Flute .

I think live events can colour your perceptions of a piece, somewhat. You get caught up in what you're seeing as much as what you're hearing, and the combined effect can be quite powerful, to the point where you're not just focusing on the music. I'm sure I'll feel differently when I hear the playback of the broadcast.

I also completely understand your point about intimacy during a live performance, but this has so far only happened for me at chamber concerts, which literally feel more intimate.

And yes, I'll let you know how I get on next week. First time for me at an opera - an artform I used to love professing that I hated. How times change ...

[Mozart]

I haven't driven in more than a year, but I loved the car for music. Its like a private concert hall. I got to know Beethoven's 9 symphonies while driving I even got into a little car accident listening to the 9th.

[M forever]

Some of my recordings can do that, but again, not like a live performance.

Try this.

[Bonehelm]

Mark, how's the sound of your PVR? Is it CD quality or even better?

[jochanaan]

I haven't driven in more than a year, but I loved the car for music. Its like a private concert hall. I got to know Beethoven's 9 symphonies while driving I even got into a little car accident listening to the 9th.

That's why I generally don't listen while I'm driving, or wouldn't if I still had a car. Besides, the background noise in a car, or at least in most cars, means that you can't hear the soft parts.

I should add that, even though I prefer live settings, I still listen more often at home.  Unless I'm rehearsing or performing!

[Mark]

Mark, how's the sound of your PVR? Is it CD quality or even better?

You downloaded the First Night of the BBC Proms MP3s that I put up, right? That should give you all the answers you need. The sound is startling good, even though the signal coming in is just from an old analogue (outdoor) aerial. We can't upgrade to a digital one where we live, as the property isn't ours.

[Solitary Wanderer]

Having attending a performance last night after listening to recorded versions of the pieces for a week, I must say that the live experience was better. But it was essential to have learned them first to appreciate them properly.

I anticipate certain moments and experience a thrill of joy and goosebumps at particular passages which I don't get when listening at home [sometimes get goosebumps at home].

And I definately prefer classical art music over opera [at this stage]. Granted I'm an opera newbie and loving it, but I just don't get the same 'buzz' that I got last night  .

[Pierre]

I enjoy both. But though they're both about music, the experience is quite different - rather like comparing watching a film as against a play on stage. A live performance, unless something is very wrong, feels vibrant in a way a recording can't - you can't be absolutely sure how the performance will go, either technically or on the interpretative front. And you can sense a musician or musicians tailoring their performance according to the acoustic you're seated in, or according to the audience etc. There's a real sense of occasion, and very rarely has a live performance left me feeling indifferent, whereas a recording - smoothed over and patched together as it is - can so easily do so if the interpretation is nothing special.

On the other hand, there are superlative recordings I'm happy to listen to again and again (one is Riccardo Chailly and the Concertgebouw performing Stravinsky's Divertimento; or the Fine Arts Quartet playing Bartok's Fourth Quartet) - some I can listen to like a familiar friendly voice as I work or do the dishes; others I relish again in the privacy of my living room.

[Greta]

I would much rather go to to the Houston Symphony and hear a live performance than listen to a recording of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Me too, Laci. But when Houston is a 3 hr. roundtrip with traffic and weather and you have new WP Mahler with Boulez sitting around, ah, a tough one! Yes, here in the U.S. location is everything unfortunately, in Europe you can have a choice of superb orchestras in a smaller radius and lots of programming choices, in America you have to be lucky as far as where you live. Another thing that can be prohibitive for going often is the cost of tickets.

That said, we braved a torrential whiteout downpour to drive to Houston to see Wagner, and won't hesitate to do the same for certain concerts this year. Especially because you only get one chance to hear certain works and who knows when you may get another one here. One of the most important things we can do as classical music lovers is to go out and see it performed live, even when it's not the easiest thing, because our orchestras need our support to survive. There really is nothing like the magic of experiencing it live, it's always a unique and special thing. Even the less than perfect experiences, the risks of live performance are the most thrilling part!

[knight66]

I enjoy both in the concert hall and at home. A lot of the points I would make have been well made by others.

The issue of the performance seeming different in situ than when heard recorded came home forceably to me with a specific Mahler 2 performance. The choir I was in took it on a short SNO tour. The Newcastle performance was recorded for TV. On the night we thought Alexander Gibson produced a memorable performance, topped by Jessye Norman at her best. On TV, a lot of it was too slow and basically boring.

Mike

[jochanaan]

...On the night we thought Alexander Gibson produced a memorable performance, topped by Jessye Norman at her best. On TV, a lot of it was too slow and basically boring.

I suppose that's the reason Celibidache refused to allow his concerts to be recorded and never entered the studio.  My performing experience has taught me that in concert you can get away with a level of freedom and flexibility that simply doesn't work on recordings.