Big orchestral is really hard to record. Always has been. It's also very difficult to create a good illusion of a huge ensemble in a normal size room. We tend to make more compromises in playback here than for other types of music. Of course there's a spectrum- some systems do it better than others. In terms of timbre, I've had a similar experience with the string brightness. Check out the vinyl. But whatever you do, don't only buy the audiophile recordings. The recorded classical repertoire is vast, and there is some utterly fantastic stuff out there that just isn't recorded very well. Confining yourself to Reference Recordings and Chesky seems like the wrong way to go.
Question for classical lovers
First of all, I grew up listening to classical and jazz, vinyl for the most part, I remember it being pleasant with no fatigue. Later, with low end gear, it was impossible to listen to classical CDs because of the edgy harsh strings. Now with respectible entry level or mid-fi gear that I have tried or auditioned, some of the recordings sound great but majority still suck. I have added tube preamps like AI modulus and Van Alstine in the chain but the problem still exists. So are the majority of CDs just bad digital recordings or transfers or is most gear out there just incapable of handling complex musical passages? Also, quite a few SACDs out there make me and my dog cringe!(must be the 100Khz response or whatever) Do I sell one of my cars and buy some exotic gear or ditch it all and get a TT?