Most Realistic Recordings


I was recently listening to my daughter practice the piano and I was enjoying quite a full-body sonic experience. I later went to my system and picked out a few piano recordings that I suspected were recorded well, but as I listened, I just didn't have anything close to the same experience. The piano just didn't sound right, nor nearly as full as I had just experienced while listening to my daughter. I know what pianos sound and feel like. I grew up playing many different types and understand their differences. I've done some research on recording pianos and have learned they are particularly difficult to record well.

As I've delved deeper into this audio hobby/interest and acquired more respectable gear, the more general question that keeps coming to my mind is this: How did this music sound at the time it was recorded? (presuming it was a person playing an instrument, not something "mixed" or electronic). Meaning, if I had been in the room, would I have heard or felt the same? Or is there something about the recording setup/micing/mixing/etc. that has failed to capture the moment? Or has the audio engineer intentionally filtered some of that out?

Now, being an audiophile (i.e., a music lover) has many paths and many goals. For me, I love lots of different kinds of music and am not too caught up in the ever changing landscape of audio gear and the need to try something new. I hope to get to the point where a well-captured recording sounds realistic in my room on my system. I like full-spectrum sound (i.e., if the note/sound is in the track, I want to hear it). I know that accurate, realistic reproduction through any system is depends a great deal on the equipment and the room it's being played back in. I don't expect my system to give me that jaw-dropping "I'm there" experience (yet), but some day I hope to get there.

So, to my question above, I would very much love to hear if anyone feels they have heard an album, a track, a recording of some kind that could be used to test out the "realism" of one's system. What would you say is a recording that more accurately captured the sonic hologram of the moment it was performed. Any genre is ok. And if you think a particular studio/company does this well, I'd love to hear about it!

And, please, I don't want the conversation to about gear or room treatment. This is about the recording itself, the source material, and how accurately the entire moment is captured and preserved. I respect everyone's personal experiences with your system, whatever it's comprised of. So, please don't argue with each other about whether a recording didn't sound realistic to you when it sounded realistic to someone else. Let's be civil and kind, for how can you deny what someone else's ears have heard? Thank you! I'm excited to learn from you all!

tisimst

I sometimes plug my electronic keyboard line out into the stereo and it sounds a whole lot more realistic than any recording

I second the Claudio Arrau Chopin Nocturnes suggestion upthread.  I also recommend Vikingur Olaffson recordings on DG; there is a Bach themed, Mozart themed, and one alternating Rameau with Debussy.  Alfred Brendel Phillips recordings of the last 3 Schubert Sonatas is also an excellent late analog recording 

Being in the physical presence of a musician is a fundamentally different sensory experience to listening to a recording. Piano is very challenging to record and reproduce realistically - at a minimum it needs a wide bandwidth, full range system with excellent timbral and dynamic capability.

Bob James's recent Feels Like Making Live is a good example of a well recorded piano, bass, drums ensemble.

One of the great things about being human is our ability to ’Suspend Disbelief.’

Once the music is canned (recorded), it is no more possible for it to sound real than canned peas to taste freshly picked, or frozen OJ concentrate to taste freshly squeezed. You will NEVER be able to kiss the girl, or guy, on the big screen.

I have recently been ’fooling myself’ with these two Qobuz streams :

*Trio Wanderer playing the complete Beethoven piano trios

*Benjamin Grosvenor playing concertos, Saint Saens no2, Ravel G major, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue.

Both offer front row seats, if not onstage perspectives, getting the musicians into your room. Boy do they sound ’REAL’ if I stay in the dream.

Joe Jackson, Body and Soul 45rpm 12 in vinyl. Amazing sound stage. I believe It was recorded in a Masonic lodge, and you can definitely hear and experience the venue. Breathtaking!