Author Topic: Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic  (Read 3520 times)

Offline ChrisH

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Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic
« on: August 25, 2017, 02:45:32 PM »
Got an alert about this recording earlier this morning:

http://www.hdtracks.com/mahler-symphony-no-7-489697

This is Alan Gilbert's last concert in New York and includes 20 or so musicians from various orchestras worldwide to augment the Philharmonic. He called it 'A concert for unity'.

Offline barryguerrero

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Re: Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2017, 06:54:58 PM »
I believe the 18:24 finale may include the applause, as I don't remember it being especially slow. You can (could) watch it on Youtube.  It's not interpretively different or interesting, but the playing is truly incredible.

Barry
« Last Edit: August 26, 2017, 11:13:58 AM by barryguerrero »

Offline barryguerrero

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Re: Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2017, 11:14:32 AM »

Offline ChrisH

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Re: Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2017, 01:14:15 PM »
This recording is very similar to Alan Gilbert's tenure at the Phil. Pretty boring, with playing that while excellent, doesn't have a lot of fire behind it. The pants are played of this work, but as a Barry said above, it is nothing special. Even the recorded sound is pretty second rate and has very little dynamic range. Disappointing.

Offline barryguerrero

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Re: Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic
« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2017, 07:56:10 PM »
"Even the recorded sound is pretty second rate and has very little dynamic range"

Fair enough, but are you going by the 'hi rez' download, or something lesser such as Soundcloud or Youtube?  I've noticed that Soundcloud is definitely 'cloudy' in terms of sound quality. Truth in advertising, indeed.

Offline ChrisH

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Re: Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2017, 08:45:25 PM »
"Even the recorded sound is pretty second rate and has very little dynamic range"

Fair enough, but are you going by the 'hi rez' download, or something lesser such as Soundcloud or Youtube?  I've noticed that Soundcloud is definitely 'cloudy' in terms of sound quality. Truth in advertising, indeed.

I did purchase the 24/96 download from HDtracks hoping to get similar sound quality as the 3rd from '09. That was not the case. This recording is very loud. When played at my normal listening volume it was very, very loud. I had to turn it down. From some analysis I've run, it's not clipping, and does show noise above 20khz. For all intents and purpose it looks like a normal 24/96 recording, but something isn't right with this.

The recording itself is very close, too close for my taste. This may be why it sounds so loud. I also think they do this in Avery Fischer to try and bring the low end out, which this recording does have in spades. The bass and cello are very prominent. It also sounds like the string and winds are in your face, while the brass and percussion are distant. All around it's just a strange recording for me.

A good classical recording of Mahler should have around a 15-20db swing from loudest to softest. I generally listen to well recorded stuff, Channel Classics/Exton etc, at about 65db. This will peak me out at roughly 80-85db which is nice and comfortable. For this recording I was listening at 40db.

I wonder if this is really the .mp3 that the NYPhil puts out for Itunes, with some noise added and upconverted.

Offline barryguerrero

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Re: Alan Gilbert/Mahler 7/New York Philharmonic
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2017, 05:14:47 AM »
Wow, good to know that. I suppose there's no such thing as asking for your money back (?).

 

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