Prior to the complete shutdown of live music two and a half years ago, my wife and I averaged somewhere in the neighborhood of a half dozen or more live concerts per year across the first thirty-five years of our marriage. Of those concerts, at least ninety percent of them were performances of baroque, classical, and romantic music, mostly in relatively intimate settings in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area.  The other ten percent was comprised of blue grass, blues, jazz, folk, pop, and rock.

Kansas City music lovers are lucky to have several venues that provide near perfect acoustics for “classical” music. Unfortunately, live performances have been banned the past couple of years, for the most part, by draconian health department restrictions…….up until this current fall/winter concert season, that is.  However, we have been hesitant this fall to purchase concert tickets due to very real threats by local health departments of additional venue shutdowns and cancellation of concerts.  

We finally bit the bullet yesterday evening and attended a performance of Handel’s Messiah at the world class Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  This annual Kansas City tradition is a bit odd, in that the Kansas City Symphony reduces it’s forces to twenty some players, making it about the right size for a Handel era orchestra, but then the choir, the gigantic 160 member (all volunteers) Kansas City Symphony Chorus provides the singing, and they can be overwhelming.  This year’s guest conductor did a commendable job keeping the choir under control, though I still much prefer a choir of fifteen to twenty singers to match the standard baroque sized orchestra.

Our seats were around thirty-five to forty feet away from the orchestra, slightly left, and maybe ten feet above stage level. The design of Helzberg Hall is so good that no matter where you are seated in the 1,600 seat music hall, soloists can all be heard as if you were in a small room with them, but our seats last night were especially good.  The sound of the orchestra, the vocal soloists, and the choir, was outstanding, as usual.  We could not have hoped for a more beautiful and moving experience.

So how did last night’s live music compare to a recorded concert in the same hall?  Well, the Reference Recordings CD/SACD recordings of the recent past provide far more detail than would ever be possible for a listener to pick up during a live concert in Helzberg Hall.  With today’s great recording techniques, and our highly resolving systems, we have it so good!  

This makes me wonder……..are our systems too good?  We are hearing all kinds of detail in our listening rooms, and in our living rooms, that is rarely heard in live performances.  

In the fall of 1979, when I was a junior at the University of Missouri - Rolla, I sat directly in front of Carlos Montoya as he amazed a hundred or so students in a very intimate two hour recital.  I was, literally, five feet away from the flamenco master for a full concert!   There was nothing between me and Senior Montoya but a few feet of air!  That may be  the one and only live concert where I likely heard more musical detail than I would hear in the same recorded event.  

Not sure what point I’m attempting to drive home here, if any—possibly that our constant striving for a higher level of resolution may not be getting us closer to the sound of live music.  I just don’t know.  I am quite sure about one thing though; simply enjoying the music that our Decware anchored systems bring to our homes is quite enough!  We truly are blessed!

Lon, I completely agree with everything you said.  My one month old ZROCK2 has changed how I listen, and has changed what I am able to listen to without being frustrated by less-than-excellent recordings.  On top of that, I now have seven (yes, seven!) individual gain controls in my system that, along with the ZR2, allow me tailor the sound to the point that I thoroughly enjoy pretty much every CD I own.  The fact is, since throwing the ZR2 into the mix, I have not encountered a single recording that I can’t make sound really good.  We are definitely on the same wavelength!

A week ago last Sunday I attended a concert by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra preforming Mozart’s Mass. I’ve been a PSO subscriber for 35 years though a rocker for far longer. I have never heard a better Mass. The ladies in particular were breathtaking, bringing a tear to my eye. If I can experience that at home, that’s money well spent to me.
  Give that boy a 6 string steel guitar, Ralph

CAJames, thanks for posting your comments again.  

I sent it to a friend with whom I have been having a similar discussion.

Well said, GroovySauce.