Article: Calibrating My Ears at the San Francisco Symphony

[FIndingit]

I’m a regular concert-goer and depending on the hall itself, the things I miss most after returning to home are dynamics, incredible upper harmonics of the brass (french horns especially) and “hearing the rosin on the bow”. There is a small but distinct additional sound in the string instruments as the bow attacks the strings, which is never there in a recording.

 

Opera singers are something completely different. Few systems and fewer recordings can recreate anything close to the heavenly sweetness, power and substance needed at the same time.