Posted by Dan Bradley on February 08, 2002 at 11:52:26:
In Reply to: Arnold Jacobs posted by tin ear? on February 08, 2002 at 09:10:59:
Straight up, some of Arnold Jacobs recordings, as well as some of the old revered CSO/Reiner recordings just sound like ass. Just listen to the CSO/Solti Mahler set. It's not awful; in fact many of the recordings are quite good, but it's far from perfection. Honestly, the folks farther on down this post who credit much of this to recording technology are pretty much right on the mark. As far as I can see, there really aren't any commercially available digital recordings that capture Jacobs in all his glory, including the "Portrait of an Artist" disc.
The simple fact is, every incredible player in the world rants and raves about how amazing Arnold Jacobs was. I never heard him play live, but I'm willing to trust players such as Dave Fedderly, Ron Bishop, Floyd Cooley, Pat Sheridan, Gene Pokorny, etc., etc. that Jacobs was absolutely special.
I encountered the same frustrastions that you have trying to figure out what was so special about Jacobs as a player. People always talk about the old Reiner recordings: Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Lt. Kije, Alexander Nevsky, the Wagner recordings, etc. I have most of these on remastered CDs, and not all of them are so good. Sometimes the tuba even sounds a little subdued. Later, I went to my school music library and listened to all of them on vinyl. That's where it's at, dude. Try comparing the remastered CD version of Alexander Nevsky with the old vinyl edition, and you'll hear what I'm talking about. He sounds ENORMOUS on the record, and just normal on the CD. They remixed everything. The same is true of the Gabrieli recording. Listen to it on vinyl. It's unbelievable! Plus, the old recording styles didn't have as good microphones, they didn't allow splicing, etc. Here is a word of advice: don't always believe that what you hear on a recording is how it really was.