Posted by Alex C on August 06, 2003 at 07:07:57:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Tastes... posted by js on August 05, 2003 at 22:30:28:
I agree with the comments about Solti's recordings, though I do like his Mahler, especially the 5th. CD's are regularly engineered to roll-off the bass which does affect the tuba presence in these recordings. I know musicians who won't listen to CD's for that reason.
My first introduction to Arnold Jacobs' playing was the Reiner recording of Alexander Nevsky. Get an LP of that and hear great tuba. Also the Lt. Kije recording has the loveliest performance of the 4 bar tuba melody I've ever heard. I didn't even know it was a tuba until I got a score. There are many others.
The musician who thoughtfully listens to these recording will understand that Chicago was never about blasting. Surely the most common knock on CSO is that it's unbalanced toward the brass. When a conductor asked the brass to back down, they did and... they did it beautifully. No finer brass section ever played together.
To each his own.