Re: Old CSO Low Brass......overrated????????


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Posted by Troy Aikman on February 16, 2002 at 01:10:49:

In Reply to: Old CSO Low Brass......overrated???????? posted by Terry Aikman on February 16, 2002 at 00:32:09:

The CSO had a sound all their own. Love it or leave it. "Back in the days" you could tell the difference between the CSO, Cleveland, Philly, and NYPhil. Today's orchestras all sound the same. Homogenized, Vanilla, Formulaic McOrchestras. I'll take the fire and character (and inaccuracies and "unperfect" pitch) of the Reiner years over the neutered, mushy cookie-cutter mish-mosh of today's fare.

Here's some case studies. Get a recording of a russian orchestra playing shostakovich. It will more than likely sound crass and ugly to your new-skool ears. But it is pure russian. Plain and simple. Here's another assignment. Get the two recordings of Bernstein's West Side Story suite for brass by the Summit Brass and the London Brass. The Summit Brass recording is incredibly accurate, in tune, precise, perfectly blended, and BORING AS HELL! The London recording has some ensemble problems here and there, some precarious pitch moments, but is exciting and passionate. Guess which gets more airplay in my home? Guess which one Mr. Bernstein would've preferred? (The jazzilly furious 'Mambo' sound more intrinsic to the Brits than it does to the cats from the country from whence the medium flourished).

There are no "myths and legends of the 'good ole days'", just memories and collected evidence of a time when American orchestras played with character and individuality (the big Conn sound of the NYPhil horn section; the sizzling horn sound of the CSO on their Lawsons and Paxmans; the fantastic strings of Philly; the wonderful, distinctive sound of LA's low brass including the blasphemy of actually carrying a miraphone on stage with a major orchestra; CSO's great percussion under Reiner; the energy of the New York Phil that sounded like rush hour over the GW Bridge; and yes, the immediately recognizable sound of CSO's brass section with Bud on top, Jake on the bottom with a sound unlike any other in an orchestra of the day, those wonderful breath attacks, and yes, even those moments that let you know they were still human.

There is a skool of thought these days that everything needs to blend together like Brahms. That tubas should sound less like tubas and more like your neighbor's subwoofer bleeding through your thin apartment walls. That sound engineers need to cut and splice and fabricate acoustics to get that grammy-winning cd, cohesion, spontaneity and momentum be damned.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion. The above is mine...

Troy "not selling even ONE of my Reiner LPs for forty of your boxed cd sets of "The Best of the San Philabostayorcago Symphony Philharmonic Orchestra" Aikman


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