From my experience, hearing the strings in a good concert hall always sounds better than on a CD. They have a smoother, silky sound without the harshness you hear on recordings.

 

Yes, classical music always sounds better live, how much better depends on how crappy your HiFi-system is!

/ptr

 

In general yes - although I guess some of this may depend on the quality of your hi-fi equipment.

However I sometimes find that classical pieces by Mozart and Haydn are performed in halls too big for the forces involved - and can loose some of their impact thereby.

Also there are problems with distractions (audience noise or even seat discomfort) in the concert hall.

As well as the sound quality there is something almost theatrical in attending say a performance of a Mahler symphony. Just occasionally I prefer a recording - for example in the fourth movement of the Mahler's seventh symphony - there are parts for guitar and mandolin. I've preferred hearing this movement recorded as against live because the recordings tend to bring forward these instruments in the balance. From my experience they can be a little 'lost' in the concert hall. For the same reason some may prefer to hear a violin concerto recorded where the soloist again tends to be brought forward in the balance.

 

Also there are problems with distractions (audience noise or even seat discomfort) in the concert hall.

Like Bulldog, I prefer to listen at home. I think that part of the listening experience is the listener's comfort. Sitting in a huge hall with coughing and shuffling strangers in stiff chairs lacking legroom, etc., is a recipe for squirming and distraction.

It all depends on the 'quality of the experience' and your listening experience. The concert hall can be distracting, even if it's only the visual input.

Curious! I find myself far more easily distracted at home; there are too many other things to do. But in the concert hall there is nothing else but to listen to the performances. I am listening to music right now but if I were in a concert hall I would be focusing on it.

I suppose I could take the same time I'd spend in a hall and sit down with a recording and focus on it but it misses the rituals of the attendance, the dedicated environment, the necessarily scheduled nature of the concert. In addition to the spontaneity, the superior acoustics of performance spaces (compared to my living room!), etc.

 

It depends where you are sitting in the room.

 

Is it expected for everyone to have a better listening experience at concerts than in recordings?

That would be a general expectation but doesn't apply to everyone. I know plenty of folks, including myself, who much prefer the listening experience in the home environment.

 

Is it expected for everyone to have a better listening experience at concerts than in recordings?

Like Bulldog, I prefer to listen at home. I think that part of the listening experience is the listener's comfort. Sitting in a huge hall with coughing and shuffling strangers in stiff chairs lacking legroom, etc., is a recipe for squirming and distraction.

Now, if I had free lifetime memberships to the local philharmonic, chamber music society etc., I would probably attend sometimes, but it's not always convenient for me.

 

I love recordings, and I treasure my music collection. I'd estimate that more than 99% of my music listening is with recordings.

That said, almost all of the most moving musical experiences I've had have been at LIVE music performances. And this is true for all genres -- jazz, classical, rock, whatever. Generally speaking, if it sounds good on a recording, it will sound even better in concert.

George Szell likened recordings to "having sex on the phone"! I'm not sure that I'd go that far.

But there's no substitute for being there.

That's how I feel about it.

 

It all depends on the 'quality of the experience' and your listening experience. The concert hall can be distracting, even if it's only the visual input.

 

Man I WISH I could have heard Toscanini conduct live, instead of the crap left to us.

 

It all depends... for example, the Kleiber recording of Beethoven's 5th and 7th beat any live performance I have ever seen in my life. However, a recent performance of Turandot live at the Utah Opera moved me more than any recording of that opera.

 

Listening to a recording is a different experience to a live concert. I couldn't get through my day without my iPod playlist but live music has qualities you will never hear even with the best performance recordings on the finest equipment.

I remember my first concert vividly. I was overwhelmed by the sense of space in the orchestral music and the subtleties of colour from the different ranks of the strings. I sat close to the stage so I could watch the pianist and could hear the scrape of bow on string and the breathing of the wind players. Every note filled me with a sense awe at of how many years of training and practice was accumulated on that stage and how much preparation had gone into this concert.
It was a living performance and so much the richer for it.
Also seeing the instruments I noticed things I hadn't heard in all the times I'd listened to my recordings just because I could see where the sounds came from.

The difference is not the same for other types of music. I've been to rock concerts and the crowds sing and chant and clap and shout all through the performance - which is itself seldom as polished as the studio recorded cd.
A classical concert is about the sound and the living space that it occupies. A studio recorded CD is not likely to be any more polished or perfect but will lack that space which orchestral music needs to give it it's full potential.

 

Given a modern orchestra, I would rather hear a live performance than a recording. No worries as to balance or volume.

Also, most of the time, a live performance will be more exciting than a non-spontaneous recording.

 

Yes. Live performance is so much better in so many ways. That's why I go to 150 concerts a year.

 

On other note, I always prefer studio rap albums rather than any live recording. For example Public Enemy sounds horrid on their live recordings.

 

^^^ yes - there are lots of distractions at home .... yes - there are irritating distractions at the concert hall

But I guess I have more control over the distractions at home - I can make a cup of tea before the music starts, I can switch the phone off, I can listen when Mrs H is out of the house, I can choose to sit where I don't look out of the window etc. In general, at the concert hall I have to put up with irritations that I have little control over ... for example, at a recent concert, I had to put up with one of the ushers using her mobile phone in my eyeline (even taking flash photos of the performer as he played).

 

The usher taking pictures? That's a new one! I sometimes take a picture after a performance at the final bow. It's a keepsake more than anything else. I wouldn't do that during the performance.

I did once cough quite loudly during a recital recorded for radio. It came out of nowhere, without warning and I was powerless to stop it. It was just the one cough but it sounded like the cough of an ill thunder god!! Of course I listened to the broadcast later and yes you could hear me! The shame!

 

I hate coming across as an elitist musician but actually playing the Beethoven Seventh is a magnificent experience, even with an incompetent, imperfect amateur orchestra.

 

Generally, live music should sound better than a recording. No matter how good your speakers and amplifier are, live should be better. And you get the visual context as well watching and hearing it live that can add to the experience.

 

I guess my home audio system is crappy. My system just cannot reproduce the layers of instruments with depth and clarity of concert hall. Interestingly, I've become more interested in live performance of chamber music lately. Sitting close to the players and watch them perform and breath together makes music so live!

 

To me, well-engineered recordings sound better than live performances for a couple of reasons: in a concert hall, there's always "ambient noise" by the audience, people shifting in their seats, unwrapping candy, thumbing through the programme notes, loud breathing through the nose, etc. Secondly, orchestras, during fortissimos, regularly hit levels of volume that exceed my pain threshold, even though I always sit in the middle back. More generally, lous passages quickly become uncomfortably harsh sounding. Third, hall acoustics, especially concerning the piano. Whether it's concertos or solo recitals, the piano always sounds muddy is a hall. I love a dry, crisp, non-pedal piano sound, but in a hall I haven't heard that yet. But maybe the hall I go to is just crap.

 

... Third, hall acoustics, especially concerning the piano. Whether it's concertos or solo recitals, the piano always sounds muddy is a hall. I love a dry, crisp, non-pedal piano sound, but in a hall I haven't heard that yet. But maybe the hall I go to is just crap.

I agree with this. I seems you have to choose your seat carefully when attending a piano concerto. In a large hall, particularly one that is less than optimal acoustically, some say sitting left of center is better than on the right. (What hall do you attend in Germany?)

The thing that makes attending a concert special or unique for me is the feeling that everything has led up to the moment of the first note. The years of practice by the individual musicians and the preparation collectively to play the pieces selected have all led to this moment, shared among the musicians and the audience.

At home I have a fairly decent sound system and listen to music all day long as loudly as I want. But the experience is a more arbitrary one. I can choose to start or stop whenever I like, or listen to something twice if I want. Nothing in particular has led up to the moment I hit the "play" button.

 

Yes. Absolutely. It sounds so much richer.

 

Overall, yes, but it depends.

The orchestra sounds rich when you're live. You can't get the same experience from headphones, IMO. The sound fills the room and takes you away, even if they're playing a work that isn't a favorite, the live performance can still captivate and arrest you.

My only exception is when you're hearing a work that you love. There is the possibility that, after listening to and getting used to your favorite interpretation, listening to a different interpretation might disappoint you.

 

I love both options although I prefer to spin my albums on my iPod or iPhone.

 

To answer the title question, the concerts do sound better than recordings. I hear the melodic and background lines much more clearly live, and the visual aspect helps determine a focus for my mind and ears. As for the experience, there are some minor annoyances either way you listen, and the live performances that achieve excellence more than outweigh those annoyances.

 

For me it all depends... I remember having lousy seats behind a pole during a concert at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Never good. And the Kimmel Center had some frequency dropouts which made the soloist lose about a tenth of the notes. It was not pleasant either.

So recordings are consistently better than live performances for replicating all of the frequencies.

however, I do like the social aspect of going to a concert and hanging out with some great folks.

 

Not sure when you were attending Kimmel, but from what I've read they've improved things with the hall's adjustable acoustics, and as always, good seats are going to offer better projection from the orchestra than behind-the-pole seats.

Went to a concert at Avery Fisher last month and sat in rear row of first balcony at the back of the hall for the first half. Muffled. No good. Moved to orchestra level near the rear for second half. Much better!

Always well worth it to find out where the best (or better) seats are. The box office is often reluctant to give advice. I've usually gotten the boilerplate "it's personal preference" response when seeking advice there. Understandable, as they don't want to be held accountable if for whatever reason you're less than satisfied with your seats.

 

Sometimes it does.