I played on most of the Sinopoli recordings for DG and the Philharmonia. Loved the operas and Mahler symphonies, many recorded at Kingsway Hall, now a glitzy hotel. No hall left! A great acoustic buried under bedrooms and restaurants!

One Sinopoli recording that's rarely mentioned is his Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony with Deborah Voigt and Bryn Terfel. As you say, he tunes into a Fin de Siècle decadence perfectly, and the Vienna Philharmonic has that music in their blood. The last movement never fails to send shivers down my spine.

This is a fascinating subject for those of us who've been around awhile and started collecting recordings in LP days, went through the CD revolution, and are now contemplating whether or not to join the streaming and digital download era. The topic of conductors who cared about what their recordings sounded like and tried to influence it opens a real pandora's box. Some of them, like Karajan, sometimes made their recordings sound worse. Szell was reputed to have a very mid-fi home stereo system that he listened to his masters on, and it affected how he perceived the quality of the engineering and ultimately the sound of the end product. Ormandy certainly cared how his orchestra sounded but generally left the engineers alone once he was satisfied with what he heard in the playbacks. Stokowski was notorious for tinkering with the electronics in the recording booth, often with detrimental results to the sound of his recordings. Many conductors from older generations were utterly indifferent to the process and simply showed up to sessions and conducted. It brings up an interesting question. How many of these famous names actually listened to recorded music with any frequency or devotion? My guess is almost none of them. They were much too busy making music to spend time listening to it like devoted hi-fi listeners do. I read a comment years ago from a famous recording engineer who stated that most orchestral players have little conception of what an orchestra sounds like from a good seat in a good concert hall. There are always exceptions to any rule of thumb, but I think it's true for conductors as well. The sound from the podium is vastly different than that from the concert hall or the listening room.

Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony recorded at the St Eustache church with great success on Decca.

I would love a long chat video covering the major labels and their distinct sound. I find it amazing that RCA Living Stereo (before the Dynagroove disaster) & Reiner were able to produce sonic knockouts in Chicago, while the famous Decca engineers & Solti struggled somewhat in Chicago during the 70s. HOWEVER, if there is one label I had to choose for best sonics start to finish in the pre-digital era it would be Decca. HMV/EMI would be 2nd. Living Stereo had that magical 7 year run. Mercury was outstanding as well for their short run. On a side note, I have always wondered why the solo piano records for DG (pre-digital) always sounded so thin and bright? Looking forward to watching your insider review this evening. Keep up the great work!

Good to hear some positive comments about the late conductor. His Mahler 5 on DG is great.

We need a 'Sinopoli - Complete recordings on Deutsche Grammophon" box, with original coverart 😉...!

Holy cow. Listening to Sinopoli's Elektra. It's electrifying.

Dave , you really are a natural educator. Kinda like Bernstein, sans the affectation. What a fascinating video. I heard Sinopoli conduct the Philharmonia in Mahler 7 at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino circa 1991. Yes, a difficult symphony in some respects, but WOW! The finale was utterly thrilling. Almost as thrilling as Bernstein’s. BTW i joined Classics Today insiders yesterday. Im IN!

I hope this talk means that we will get your ten best combinations of sonics and performance some day.

Dave, under RCA, Ormandy was blessed with recordings made in the Scottish Rite Cathedral on Broad Street in Philly. Those engineers, especially Jay David Saks, had great control over the sound. I participated in 4 recordings with them, and the RCA engineers were so good that the steam heat pipes that went off during the recording session were never picked up by mics. Talk about the importance of which mic you use and their placement...!

Dave. I love the sinopli recording of the Bruckner fifth. He got imo all the balances correct. And his Bruckner eighth with the same orchestra is very fine

The interplay between engineer and conductor was something I never really gave much thought too… truly fascinating. Have you ever been witness to a recording session where the conductor is directly involved in the mastering of the recording? Does a conductor “tweak” the orchestra more than the electronics or vice versa? To even think about it is just so interesting!

I name not a conductor, but a label: Lyrita. Its sonics of 60 and 70's recordings are unbelievable spacious and natural. Really, really gorgeous! Most of Lyrita's catalogue sounds better than many records of today.

Sinopolis disc of Elgars In The South / Enigma disc is fantastic

I have long been a fan of Sinopoli's recordings, Dave, so it is great to see you so this talk! Despite many of them being unpopular with the Gramophone people or the Penguin people I have always looked deeper than "it's slow" and enjoyed a lot of the character that be brought to performances. His Elgar discs I really like and tbh most of his Mahler cycle I like too. I also have a soft spot for the Philharmonia so that probably influences my bias. I'm even willing to forgive the long second cymbal clash in the Pathétique march (it should be short!) because the rest of the record is superb. However, on the subject of sonics... My go to piece/recording whenever I have ever purchased new headphones or speakers has been his recording of La Mer (coupled with a brilliant Daphnis suite no.2). I play the last few pages of the first movement and the hairs never fail to stand up on the back of my neck. The sheer power he gets with those waves crashing is simply astonishing. They really let rip!!!

Hi Dave. I am a 15-year old cellist and conductor student from Denmark. Your videos have helped me come through some tough times in my life, and you're very inspiring and your videos is always fabulous, informative and fun. You have opened my eyes for music critisiscm, which i used to think were some incompetent bullshit. In fact i have started to write my own reviews for fun just because of you. I can't imagine my life without your videos or reviews on classistoday. I have a request: Maybe you can do a more detailed video about the Richard Strauss "Eine Alpensinfonie" instead of the rather short video with only 2 recordings, you already did. It's one of my favourite works of all time (the recording with Kosler/Czech Philharmonic on Supraphon is my favourite), and I think it is a little bit sad, that such a great work only gets a short video from you. Anyway, thanks for great and constructive music critiscism and for opening my eyes for lots of new exciting repertoire. I hope you also will keep on listening.

Oh, I forgot, a sinopoli recording i think is really good. And a bit different is his Bruckner 8 on DG. Coupled with Strauss metamorphosin. A good example of the revrrbarent sound you mentioned. His Bruckner could be uneven, but I think this was the best of his recordings of Bruckner. Paul G

my best cd of sinopoli is the wagner overtures cd with staatkapelle dresden on dgg...the sound is very wonderful...listen '' rienzi overtures '' wow...! this cd receive at this publication a 10 on 10 for the sound by the diapason magazine i,m thing...and this a first time i listen wagner like this...and i like the ''sound '' of recording made by dutoit-montréal at église de st -eustache ,québec, by the sound ingenering of decca-london,ray minshull i think

Thank you for mentioning Dorati. I love the sound in his early Flying Dutchman and later Stravinsky on Decca.

I love the sound on Mackerras' Schubert 8 and 9 on Telarc. I think it counts as one of my all time favorite recordings (among many). Another favorite of mine is the 1990 Bernstein/Hampson Mahler songs (live) on DGG. To stay with Mahler, the Tilson-Thomas/LSO Mahler 7 on RCA sounds just great, to my ears.

I’m glad to hear all that about Sinopoli’s recordings. It makes sense now. It makes sense now.

Fascinating topic. So true about Dorati and Mercury: the sound the got on Schönberg op. 16 is one of the greatest things ever

Love Sinopoli and the Philharmonia doing the Mahler 5th. Great sound!

I always found the sound on Sinopoli's DG opera recordings magnificent. Voices just in the right place, not too forward in the old style, nor too recessed as with Solti often, and at that time (mid-late 1980s) we were treated to some weird disasters like Muti's Verdi operas - 'Forza' was a complete disaster sonically - if he had had the sound of, say Sinopoli's 'Manon Lescaut' it would probably have been a knock-out - David is so right about Muti's ambivalence to the sonic results of his records... I'd like to see what folks think of the sound, often in mono only, which DG got for, among others, Fricsay in the 1950s with Dr. Elsa Schiller. I love the transparency and detail in those old discs, and woodwinds are forward enough. I wonder, did Karajan get rid of her from DG when he decided woodwind was filth? I'd say the rot set in after her departure.... am I right? Totally with you about HVK's over-manipulated recordings with inaudible piani and deafening tutti.... I give up with some of them. But that malaise extends throughout many later recordings - some of Abbado's later Mahler, for example. An example was set and it seems is hard to avoid. I love the sound of the mid 1960's EMI Klemperer discs, austere, frank, lucid, just like the conductor's way with the music. Would that Furtwangler had cared (at all) about the microphone, except for the legendary sessions where he insisted on a single microphone being hung over his head so the disc would, presumably, sound exactly like what he was hearing! (oddly enough it really didn't)

Fascinating topic! A great recording is sound and performance! Toscanini was another conductor who in his later NBC years was involved with the sound of his releases. Supposedly his hearing had declined so he was always on the engineers to boost the high end. Also, he was always on them to capture everything, all the details. Perhaps a reason why he as opposed to most others liked the dry acoustic of the NBC studio he performed from. Paul G.

Just today I was listening to the original 4 channel version of the Berlioz Requiem on Vanguard (remastered) recorded in the Mormon Tabernacle with Maurice Abravanel. The spacing of the bands at the four corners, the placing of the chorus and orchestra and the clarity along with sheer sonority and impact are overwhelming. I don't know how much Abravanel had to do with it but he must clearly have cared a lot, judging from the general run of Utah Symphony/Vanguard discs I've heard from Varese to Gershwin to Mahler.

I remember a not especially good performance on Aida at the Wiener Staatsoper in 83 or 84 in which the sound he conjured from the orchestra was breathtaking. Many of us in the audience were focussed mostly on what was happening in the pit. Obratzova did a marvellous job of upstaging him as Amneris!

Bruno Maderna Quadrivium by Sinopoli on DG is my favorite classical recording ever !

I really enjoyed this discussion. I wonder if you would attempt a series of talks on specific labels- their history, affiliations, sonic characteristics. Could be fun!

Hope there are more videos about sonics, thanks so much

I've always been amazed at the sonic and conceptual differences between Karajan's Brahms 4 and Klemperer's, virtually contemporaneous, with same orchestra and label, and one assumes the same studio crew. Different worlds

One of my favorite expressions regarding "Home Audio" sound quality - EVER, because it's so painfully true! - is simply this: "BAD SOUND KILLS GOOD MUSIC!" How anyone can sit through 14 discs (!!!) of Furtwängler's sonically abysmal RING CYCLE is beyond my comprehension!🙉🙉🙉 LIFE IS SHORT... far too short to waste time listening to supposedly "great interpretations" recorded badly! Quite a few "classical music aficionados" have literally dismissed Solti's Ring (mostly because of the added sound effects, and Culshaw’s very original recording techniques)... but THAT’S a Ring you can LISTEN to and treasure… again and again… and again. Mike D.

Hi David. Hearing your talk about sound of recordings I’d like to suggest a series of bests sound engineers. We don’t know them as well as they deserve, so we could learn a lot of that important issue. An if you allow me, I have two other ideas: 1. A series about your first loves on disc (as you did talking about Steinberg’s Beethoven’s 5th, which I added on my streaming list and can’t stop hearing) 2. As a Brazilian, I would suggest a chat about Camargo Guarnieri, a less known and much different composer than Villa-Lobos. Thank you so much and keep on listening!

Here’s hoping you will do a Conductor’s 10 Best Recordings talk on (i) Bruno Walter and (ii) Nikolaus Harnoncourt over the next several months.

Fascinating talk, thanks. On a related note, I'd be interesting in a talk on your part re. excessive spot-miking and other recording choices that can undermine the naturalness of classical recordings (at least relative to an (offstage) audience physical listening perspective. While sometimes / in some ways it can be fascinating; and I understand how listener's 'details' fetishes or modest listening gear in most cases may encourage spotlighting certain parts of say, an orchestra's sounds, I still tend to find it problematic and off-puting compared with a more naturally-blended sound for a large ensemble. I've very much noticed house difference between certain labels, but before your talk, I hadn't really thought about instances of different conductors having different characteristic sounds for their recordings. Regarding DG, though, over the years their tendency towards problematic sonics has been much noted by me, and has ofen (but not usually in a decisive manner) made me hesitant to buy releases on that label vs releases of comparable playing qualities on other ones, even including another large, variable label such as Decca; whereas by contrast, my Pentatone or BIS SACDS generally tend to sound great, even for SACDs (their sound improvements presumably due as much or more to the specific recording processes and re/masterings on them as to their hi-res formatting); and of course the recordings by the Fines for Mercury tended to be outstanding and still hold up well today (or in terms of absolute listening experience even surpass contemporary discs), even after 60 years!

His DG recording of Mahler 2 has a bad splice/edit where the tam tam ring is not present, as the plug was started without making certain the tam tam was struck first, thus providing the decay of the loud sorority that immediately preceded the plug.

Sinopoli, yes! I would love if you continure with Dorati, or Temirkanov.

Nominations for Best Sounding Recordings by specific conductors or orchestras… Barbirolli/Philharmonia Mahler 6 (most incredible analog sound, ever!), Karajan/Berlin Schoenberg Variations for Orchestra, Klemperer/Philharmonia Mahler Das Lied von der Erde…l

The first chord of his DG Tosca video bears out what you say - dark, rich.

Charles Groves and Louis Fremaux always got great sound from EMI.

I have a rather weak sense of recorded sound, mostly, I believe, due to years of listening to obscure repertoire on small labels with atrocious sound. So my appreciation of Sinopoli (or Stokowski, for that matter) is not due mainly to the sound quality. Sinopoli, aside from his interpretations (to me, wildly variable), was the conductor who, more than any other, got his orchestra to "breathe" -- not in the usual sense of that term. It sounded like a human singer operating the bellows of the lungs and diaphragm, inhaling and phonating. I've never heard anyone else get that effect from an orchestra.

FYI. Tower Japan is re-issuing Sinopoli's NY Philharmonic recordings on DG as a set. Great performances and sound except for a distant sounding Respighi disc. Heard him live at the Vienna Festival with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Unfortunately overblown sound in the Musikverein on the first night probably due to lack of any rehearsal in the hall prior to the concert. After a rehearsal in the hall the next morning, that night's concert sounded much better.

I'd​ be​ fascinated to​ know, Dave, how​ conductors​ are​ chosen/appointed.​ I​ think​ that​ some​ orchestra​s​ i.e.​ the​ musicians choose​ (by​ a​ vote​-secret?)​- in​ other​s​ who​ chooses? e.g.​ who​ chose Rattle for​ Berlin? Some​ relative unknowns must​ have​ been​ great​ appointments? Some​ famous​ names​ relative​ 'flops'? Perhaps a​ topic for​ one​ of​your super​ videos.

Sinopoli's Salome is just as good in sonics

I look forward to hearing the full enchilada by going over to Classics Today. Meanwhile, I can say that I find Sinopoli to be a wildly inconsistent maestro. I remember a Mahler 3rd with the NY Philharmonic which was the most puzzlingly unmusical and wayward orchestral performance of anything I've ever heard; I swear the orchestra sounded lost at times! Then I heard him conduct the Respighi Roman trilogy and thought it was one of the most musical and exciting experiences of my life, with the same orchestra playing like gods! He was a great Opera conductor. In fact, his SALOMÉ recording with a fabulous Cheryl Studer has long been my favorite recording of that opera.

Did Bernstein have an engineering particularly liked or sound it seems like he would be pretty high maintenance when it came to the final product

I grimace and laugh when I think of Humphrey Burton relating the story of Leonard Bernstein after a recording session. He was at a particularly low point after Felicia's death and just really did not care about much.... The engineers played back a section that clearly displayed totally out of tune trombones. Lenny just laughed as he walked out saying "I know they are so badly out of tune. Isn't it marvelous?" The other story I love was Pavarotti (who always insisted his mike level be raised to make his voice sound bigger) commented in the engineering room during the von Karajan La Boheme recording for Decca that a flute entrance was flat. Someone checked and it it was. HvK probably had a minor stroke.

Dave I see this is from 2 years ago but can you name other labels that had what you termed "corporate sound"? Delos maybe? Chandos? Mercury?

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I bought the Sinopoli Philharmonia Mahler 5. I was completely repulsed by the reverberance. Gramaphon magazine was raving about it. Go figure.

Dave, another member brings up an important point : how much clout do conductors have in terms of whether or not a recording is or isn’t released? It’s too early to name names, however, how much power do the label executives, engineers etc. have in terms of saying to a conductor “this isn’t up to snuff. This can’t be released because of X, Y, Z”. I understand that some of the greatest maestri were positively Stalinist vis a vis the orchestra . But vis a vis the big record labels? Can the label intervene or is it like most things ie. it ultimately all comes down to the bottom line ($$$?).

This talk makes me glad I bought the Andre Previn box and not the Riccardo Muti box.

I like Sinopoli’s Strauss opera recordings very much. But I don’t think they’re as good as Solti’s, which to me are a revelation.

What​ are​ t​he​ criteria? Star​ quality(?), money​ making prospects, politics, nationality, dare​ I​ say​ race​ and​ gender?