The Truth about many "Audiophile" Piano Recordings

[Robin L]

What about this performance do you love so much?

While we're at it, here's a sonically compromised but otherwise exquisite rendition of Debussy's Clair de Lune, Walter Gieseking:

 

[sam_adams]

While we're at it, here's a sonically compromised but otherwise exquisite rendition of Debussy's Clair de Lune, Walter Gieseking:

I won't post a YT link to this recording because they are all of poor quality, but this recording:

Suite Bergamasque: Clair De Lune

from

Debussy, François-Joël Thiollier – Clair De Lune And Other Piano Favourites, Naxos – 8.555800

is an excellent recording that has an immediate sonic impression of being recorded in a concert hall or large recital room setting. The key is in the obvious reverberation of the performance space that is captured in the recording.

The Open Goldberg Variations by Kimiko Ishizaka (Open Archive direct download), Aria, is an excellent recording that gives the performer impression in the recording with the added benefit of the reverberant space.

 

[dualazmak]

What about this performance do you love so much?

Again, sorry to be out of the scope of OP @pablolie, but let me continue only a little bit further on this specific performance and recording.

Chaconne for violin by (or attributed to) Tomaso Antonio Vitali.
As I already wrote here and here, even though I have so many recordings of Vitali's Chaconne, after all I always return to this Jacques Thibaud's recording accompanied by piano Tasso Janoupolo;
Jacques Thibaud plays Vitali Chaconne (arr. Charlier), 1936

This recording was/is my very first encounter, almost 60 years ago, with Vitali's Chaconne through 78 rpm SP monaural vinyl record within SP library of my father's.
I myself used to play piano a lot, and therefore I do very much love the Janoupolo's piano accompaniment in this recording; it is just for me, indeed.

Thibaud really loved this violin piece, and he played it so often at the top or finale of his concerts. Even though I know well that his performance style would be very oldish (with so much portamento) from modern-violine-performance point of view, my personal nostalgia and preference have been so tightly fixed on this performance, that is it!
I have several same things and tendencies, i.e. sticking to my first encounters, just like my preference on Brahms "Alto Rhapsody" performed by Christa Ludwig and Otto Kremperer (ref. here.)

And, Thibaud's tragic accidental pass-away in 1953, which also destroyed his prized/beloved 1720 Stradivaious, enhanced my nostalgia and preference on this performance; he was heading to Tokyo where several concerts and recording sessions were scheduled together with Alfred Cortot and Pablo Casals.


Other than this old-style performance, I also love this deeply heat-felt performance by Tomoko Kawada (with Maki Tanaka, piano) in 2011 at Charity Live (at a corner of small shopping center in the earthquake-tsunami district?) for the victims of the Tsunami March 11, 2011 in North-East Japan.

Yes, sometimes music performances tell the background stories and history, and evoke my (our) nostalgia and tears...

 

[beefkabob]

While we're at it, here's a sonically compromised but otherwise exquisite rendition of Debussy's Clair de Lune, Walter Gieseking:

I feel this one a lot more than the other, TBH. It is, in the end, about the music, but music is made of sound. There are all these interesting facets of enjoyment.

 

[Bergante]

I'm unsure as to whether you have played an acoustic grand or upright in person before but from a player's perspective, placing stereo microphones in close proximity to the hammers produces rather accurate results. That is precisely how the piano sounds to the player and is why many pianists will be dissatisfied with a more distant recording.

The problem is, what do you want to achieve?

If you are part of the audience in a concert the sound you hear is really different!

I have been doing sound for jazz concerts for 20 years. What I try to achieve is a natural sound. To the audience it looks like there is no PA equipment, the main source is the live sound of the instruments and I just make up for the natural masking between instruments. I rarely move a fader during the performance except when there is a real problem.

With pianos I varied my approach between a slightly distant miking with hyper cardioids and close miking depending only on how loud the drummer played. For the sax, if possible, I use a MD441 in front of the player, at a distance of up to half a metre. Nothing similar to the microphone almost inside the bell.

This is an example of both (no drummer!:

The recording mixing is not mine, it is a best effort made by a musician and, anyway, it is an incidental recording in order to put a video on Youtube.

Microphones: For the piano (Steinway Model D) two AKG SE300B with ck93 capsules (hypercardioid). For the sax, Sennheiser MD441.


Note. The setup is intended for live sound, the recording is just incidental.

Note 2. The venue is incredibly reverberant. In several years I only used a reverb a couple of times because a sax player wanted it on the monitor.

And here the microphones (same ones) are closer to the hammers because I have a drummer on stage.

The double bass has my secret weapon in front of an f-hole (Cad Equitek e100-2), trumpet with MD441, the drum kit has a pair of Peluso CEMC as overheads and an Audio Technica boundary in front of the kit.

 

[dualazmak]

The Open Goldberg Variations by Kimiko Ishizaka (Open Archive direct download), Aria, is an excellent recording that gives the performer impression in the recording with the added benefit of the reverberant space.

Hello @sam_adams,
Thank you for sharing this Open Archive direct download link; I fully agree with you, just wonderful performance and recording quality, and exciting project, indeed!

From exactly the same nuances and feelings(?) of your point, let me join you by sharing one physical CD album on solo piano classical music.

Here in this post, I too dare not refer/include YouTube or other web links to this amazing physical CD, even though I have already touched on this CD in my post here sharing link to the YouTube clip of whole the album. Iddo Bar-Shai (Iddo Bar-Shaï) plays François Couperin; released only in CD format MIR195 MIRARE, really wonderful recording quality, hall tones/reverberations, and of course amazing performance;

At least for myself, this physical CD is one of the top-five classical piano solo albums I purchased (and/or downloaded) during the past five or six years. Highly recommended, and if possible, I would like to know your thoughts/impressions on the CD album.

 

[Bergante]

CD is a superior medium in so many aspects. If only because a properly mastered CD keeps the proper pauses between movements, which is critical for classical music. Not to mention the CDs I own that are not available on any streaming platform!

 

[pablolie]

Here's yet another of those examples where the orchestra is presented well, yet the piano covers the entirety of of the stage end-to-end But I get over it quickly, I like the performance...

 

[JohnnyAudio]

Daniel Lanois can play...

MY ALL / Daniel Lanois / Player, Piano​

 

[Miley_B]

Here's yet another of those examples where the orchestra is presented well, yet the piano covers the entirety of of the stage end-to-end But I get over it quickly, I like the performance...

I have little knowledge of classical piano and recording but I do appreciate a good bit of width in music generally.
Whilst the piano is clearly unrealistic I rather like it. Do you think this recording would be better/preferable if it had a more realistic piano sound or maybe it’s more enjoyable because of the surreal picture it paints?

Also whilst I’m writing a post I’d like to chime in on the subject of piano purchasing by professional pianists.
I have an acquaintance who is a professional pianist and they have several grand pianos in their possession. They are a mix of long term (permanent) loans, I think by the regional distributor, and discounted purchases over many years.
There is clearly no hard rule with regards endorsement deals etc. and probably comes down to who you know and being in the right place at the right time.

Interesting discussion thread. Thanks.

 

[pablolie]

..
Whilst the piano is clearly unrealistic I rather like it. Do you think this recording would be better/preferable if it had a more realistic piano sound or maybe it’s more enjoyable because of the surreal picture it paints?

I'd have to hear the different versions, probably. I do understand why this is a pretty common practice. I probably would prefer if the piano sounded a bit more integrated into the orchestra, but on the other hand I like to hear Yundi's delivery. Maybe better over the left half rather than the full width. Again... we know why "it's complicated"...