I think the WDR/SWR engineers have fooled around with the pure mono signal on these tapes, adding a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) phony ambience to the CDs in the manner of Andrew Rose and his Ambient Stereo effect at Pristine Audio. I may have to dig out my old Tektronix oscilloscope to prove it, but this is what my ears tell me. In some spots it's strong enough to affect the clarity of the signal.
I didn't notice this effect on their earlier Rosbaud Bruckner box, but now I'll have to go back and listen more carefully.
I tend to agree with you on this, James. I also have both sets you mention, and I didn't detect any "fooling around" with the sound on the Bruckner set as seemingly has been done on the Mahler set. In fact, other Rosbaud sets dedicated to other different composers don't have this phony ambience you mention. It seems that this might have been purposely done to promote sales of this Mahler set. If anything, it ruins the sound. While the performances are really good, the results do harm to Rosbaud's legacy as a Mahler conductor of the first rank.
Considering the time that these recordings were made, I think that Rosbaud's major contribution here is in the performances of M6 and M7, as there were almost no recordings of these symphonies extant at the time of their making.
Except for the M1 in this set, these same performances appeared on the Japanese Memories/Reverence label, which I have, and they have totally different sound than do these in the SWR set, and seemingly sound to come from different masters.
If opportunity permits, do get out your old Tektronix oscilloscope and check these recordings out. I'd definitely be interested in knowing what you find out.
Wade
Topic: D.H.'s Youtube rave of Hans Rosbaud/S.W.R. Mahler box. (Read 7940 times)