Quote:
Originally Posted by
dtf
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Hi Lucas,
What do ou mean exactly? I am curious because I have alwas heard from the colleagues at the former Philips Classics Recording Centre that Straus was absolutely obsessed with detail when it came to the mic setup, e.g. making sure that mics were at the same distance to the performers, up to the centimeter.
Thanks,
Dirk
Hello Dirk,
First of all, I was never a student or assistant to Volker, and all my info regarding his attitude and convictions come from colleagues that did work or study with him. His legacy is manifold and IMHO had its ups and downs. I cherish some of his recordings, but they generally follow a desire to artificially build a theatre of sound, and in that respect he wasn't that different from others in his generation, like Günther Hermanns etc. One student of Volker later described his attitude as a man who wanted to be god, and I immediately understood what he meant. They were not interested in getting a transparent image of the performance, but they were aiming to recreate something more beautiful, more involving, more intense.
There's nothing wrong with that. Indeed it has sometimes succeeded in getting the musical message of a piece to the listener listener in a new and highly emotional way. These engineers were prepared to sacrifice "fidelity" to beauty, whereas nowadays more attention seems to go to transparency and an authentical representation of space.
For me, both approaches can succeed in capable hands, and none is wrong, or superior.
I hope my characterization makes sense to you, and maybe others who did work with him can chime in on how they would characterize his methods and ideals...