Was trying to listen to some wonderful Dello Joio music - impossible due to the completely inept recording, which I'm finding is the case with a lot of the newer 90s and 2000s digital crap. It's distant miked so there's absolutely no orchestral detail at all, the dynamics on the CD range from impossible to hear at all to almost acceptable but not quite. The Peter Maxwell Davies was exactly the same. Then you listen to Air Power by Dello Joio, from Columbia Records recorded in stereo in 1958 and it puts all this modern crap to shame - it's alive, vibrant, and filled with detail. This horrid Dello Joio CD has great music on it but you would not know it from these inept performances and sound - and this conductor, who had his ten minutes with American music, one James Sedaris, has ruined so much great music. But speaking of inept, even Leonard Bernstein and the NY Phil had off days, recording-wise - one of the worst is his performance of Randall Thompson's amazing second symphony. He simply hasn't the feel for it - Bay Cities put it out in horrid mono sound but that performance is fantastic in terms of feel and intention - and the NY Phil is ragged on it to boot - I also didn't think much of the other selections on that CD - a Roy Harris symphony and a David Diamond symphony. Normally Bernstein is great with American music, but not here, at least in my opinion.
