I always felt that my demands for quality of Audio Sound might be to degree be moderated by conducting efforts. The true enigma for me is this aspect is John Barbirolli. Barbirolli is one of my the most admired conductors of mine and he is one very few conductors whose recordings I use to buy just because it was played by Barbirolli, even if I have no specific inters to the given music. I said use to buy I think I have everything Barbirolli ever released and sometime I just come across some, most of the Japanese, bootlegs that I snatch with no second thought.

So, what I recognize is that when Barbirolli conducting then for some reason the subject of sound quality is completely evaporated from my perception.  Last night I was listening Mahler's Ninth that Barbirolli recorded with Berlin in 1964. As usually - stunning and as uselessly in dismal quietly. The Mahler's Ninth – here is what the sound quality shall be at its best. Barbirolli 1964 recording has handily identifiable instilment groups – so bad it is …. but it is absolutely no negative impact to the me. Is it something in Barbirolli or is it something in the EMI techniques in the period when they dealt with Barbirolli? Does anybody else suffers with the similar “problems” with other conductors?

BTW, if you are Barbirolli fun then you might find this book worth reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Glorious-John-Collection-Barbirollis-Interviews/dp/0955671000/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273212135&sr=8-1#reader_0955671000