Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

174.0. "Concert Hall vs. CD" by DONJON::ROSENBERG () Fri Sep 06 1985 17:22

Since a really lively discussion of the pros and cons of CDs got buried in
the responses to a note on the prices of CD players, I thought I would restart
the discussion back up where it belongs, in a note of its own. I had the
fortunate and rewarding experience this week of sitting in on an open 
rehearsal of the Concord Orchestra. The Concord Orchestra is a large
symphony orchestra of almost professional caliber (or at least as good as
any amateur organization I have ever heard). We rehearsed two "blockbuster"
pieces, the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4.
Both have tremendous crescendos and fortissimos with sudden pauses and 
realatively total silence thereafter. Also the rehearsal took place in an 
otherwise empty hall. The recurring and overwhelming feeling I kept getting 
during and after playing and listening to this wonderful music with all its 
changes in dynamic range was that (not having played in an orchestra in almost 
30 years and never having played in an orchestra this good) the closest 
experience I have had to this most real and moving of real experiences was 
listening to the same type of music from a CD. This is NOT to say that music 
from a CD through a high fidelity system is the same or or even close to the 
real thing, but it was far and away better than anything else I have heard to 
date.


				Dick Rosenberg

	I've been to a couple of concerts in Mechanic's Hall in Worcester
	and to Tanglewood this summer, and I agree with .0 that digitally
	recorded music on CD on a good audio system is the closest to live
	concerts that your going to get. However, I feel there are DIS-
	advantages to listening to a live concert in a concert hall. One
	of them is noise from the audience, but the other more important
	one is that you can SEE the performance and performers which I
	think prevents you from really HEARING the music.

Ken....

re: .0 	Welcome input.  The music is what its all about.

	Might I suggest that a few base notes be started for CD 
player and CD record prices, bargains etc.  Then people will be 
able to skip over more easily.  I appreciate that people need 
that type of information; however at the moment too many notes 
deal with the same or similar topics. 

My record of the month:  Mozart - The Magic Flute.

/Dermot