My review of their performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.9 is live at Classical Source.

This evening I will be attending the post-gala opening concert of the New York Philharmonic’s “official” season (which I am reviewing for ClassicalSource.com).

In preparation for tonight’s concert, I decided to tune in last night’s broadcast of the Philharmonic’s opening gala on thirteen (WNET-HD, Channel 13 in New York City) via my Time Warner HD cable feed.

Am I the only person who found it infuriating that the video feed was a (poorly) upsampled standard-definition signal?

Worse yet, the audio quality was an embarrassment: radically compressed dynamic range, aggressive employment of limiters that introduced a “breathing effect,” and an ugly string timbre that bore no resemblance to Philharmonic.

But it came as no surprise. Last night’s botch job was typical of the poor quality thirteen has been foisting on viewers as “quality programming” for well over a decade.

Memo to PBS: if you’re going to broadcast or videotape a Lincoln Center event, at least spring for the gear to give us a real HD signal. And I’ll be the first to admit that Avery Fisher Hall is nightmare audio recording/broadcast venue, but there is NO excuse for crappy sound. I have not seen any Live from Lincoln Center events outside of New York City on a decent home theater system, so I can’t be certain as to which knob-twiddler(s) in the audio chain might be the culprit(s) — PBS’s remote team, thirteen, or Time Warner — but I would venture a guess that no one is innocent, but some are more guilty than others.

So here’s a little unsolicited advice for all concerned: fix it. And here’s some news for PBS and thirteen: music lovers DO have the brains to lower the volume before the music begins so that something resembling a realistic dynamic range eMerges from their speaker(s). Maybe you should send your broadcast producers and engineers to NHK in Japan or BR and WDR in Germany to see and hear televised classical music done right. Something has to be done, because the present status quo is not only an insult to your viewers but the music and artists.

Stanley Drucker, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic for sixty years and one of America’s truly legendary classical instrumentalists, is retiring at the end of this season. My review of his spectacular performance of Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto last night with the Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel can be found at Classical Source. Friday’s New York Times ran a terrific piece on Drucker by Daniel Wakin.

The choir was a mere 120 singers. The boychoir a minuscule 40. And Carnegie Hall’s electric abomination of an “organ” should be put out of its misery (three simple words on this matter for Carnegie Hall’s management and donors: Marshall and Ogletree). But what a Mahler Eighth. Pierre Boulez…

Continue reading Mahlerthon @ Carnegie Hall: VIII →

My review of Wednesday evening’s Barenboim/SKB Mahler concert is live at Classical Source. NOTE: Blogging is likely to be on the light side for the next couple of weeks as private life intervenes.