Music to test systems

I tend to use recordings of music that I have frequently heard live. Since I have heard the Chicago Symphony live hundreds of times I use the Reiner (Classic Vinyl preferred)and Solti performances of Bartok,Reiner's Sheherazade, Solti's Mahler 8th and the HP remaster of Ozawa's Rite of Spring. These pieces have solos for most of the instruments and voices as well as massive tutti's. Vaughn Williams Symphony Antartica is a favorite for low bass with orchestra.

The manic tempo in the last movement of the Concerto for Orchestra is in the score. Solti takes it at the marked tempo and even went so far as to examine the autograph score before the recording to resolve some tempo discrepancies between the parts and the conductor's score. Microdynamics, to use that audio term, in a live performance of Bartok's Concerto played in a dry hall like Orchestra Hall Chicago will show the gap between live and the best system. That piece is my favorite to see if a piece of equipment is an improvement or not.

Sorry if I sounded testy. I heard virtually every Orchestra Hall performance of the CSO ( and many at Ravinia) from the late sixties to the mid 80's. I also had a fair amount of personal contact with Solti and was at several of his recording sessions. Solti was a student of Bartok and every November near Bartok's birthday Solti played an all Bartok program. The manic intensity was certainly a Solti trademark. My only real regret about moving to the SF Bay area was giving up my multiple series season tickets in the first row of the balcony at Orchestra Hall. Now I only hear the CSO live two or three times a year when travel on business.

Ray Still was an astonishing oboe player and quite a character even by the stereotypes of oboe players. I didn't get to know Larry Combs. I knew the brass players the best, especially Adolph Herseth (trumpet) and Dale Clevenger (Horn). I became more than a subscriber because at the University of Illinois when I was a "gopher" for the Decca recording team and Solti. That's how I got to know Solti and to attend rehersals and recording sessions over the years. Additionally, my wife, who is also nuts about music,was the banker for the CSO and the Lyric Opera.