Violin Moves All Over the Sound Stage


I have a beautiful digital recording of Isaac Stern and the NY Philharmonic playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major.  The solo violin sounds sometimes in the center, sometimes from the left speaker and sometimes like two different violins in two different locations.  What is wrong?
aeschwartz

Showing 3 responses by bkeske

I’m listening to it, and for the most part, Stern is within the center or left-center (which would be correct), but at times, he ‘shows up’ on the edge of the right channel. I would not classify it as ‘moving all over the stage’ though not consistent…..but….

Keep in mind, this performance was originally released in 1959, in mono, so all stereo releases were re-engineered for stereo. I think that is where the problem lies, and it was re-released in stereo many many times.
I would go to Discogs, find that album, and see what has received the highest user ratings for the various releases. No guarantee, but it is a start.

I streamed the Great Performance version, that wasn’t too bad actually, I enjoyed it. There is another by Columbia from the 60’s, and my guess is it could be pretty darn good. I’m not sure it’s available in digital/CD format though.

I purchase a lot of period classical LP’s, have 22 arriving tomorrow, and you can’t go wrong with a Columbia Masterworks release, typically. The Great Performance series were actually Columbia releases by CBS. When Sony took over Columbia/CBS, they put out some really nice remastered old classical recordings, but limited. I highly doubt they remastered that album.
Might help to listen only in mono.

Yep, have many mono LP’s, and enjoy them.

Or

Find a newer release/performance of this piece. But, I don’t think you will find the Stern/Bernstein/NY version that fixes the issue in digital. I think only a couple were released.