I just read, in Stereophile, a history of the first DDD CD…”Brothers in Arms”. It is worth reading for both the historic content and the recording techniques utilized. The piece is detailed, including microphone types used, positions and engineering. I consider that recording as a tour de force in every way - except what we hear is not “real”, but a creation of its own.
In my brief alterego as a self styled recordist, I used an excellent R2R Technics with RCA Ribbon microphones in the Blumlein configuration. In the 1970s I recorded the Oberlin College Choir in an Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, Florida. By happenstance, many of the choir and its Director were at my home, listening to the recoding on my Fulton Premier Speakers powered by Audio Research amps.
The Director was so impressed by the recording, he borrowed my tapes to be used on their vinyl recording. The vinyl was produced, crediting me as a recoding engineer. The album sound came nowhere near the tape, and sadly, the tapes were destroyed in return shipment!
My comment now on real… the tape, playing back on my system, came close, at least to my and the conductor’s ears, to approximating the performance in the church. Even so, having been in the venue for the concert, it was still an approximation, therefore - not real.
That said, having thousands of vinyl and CD/SACD recordings and now, access to high quality streaming music, approximation is pretty damn good!! Being 84 years old and somewhat disabled, live performances are no longer within my reach and, without my likely ultimate system, I would not be able to enjoy the experience!
We stand on the shoulders of giants to be able to enjoy the vast catalog of performances of all genre of music - kudos to all of them… and the approximation of reality!