To further expand on Kodomo's line: "Recording is an art, it is not solely engineering"
To truly record something magical, one has to first consider/control the instruments that are being recorded. Recording violins, they all have different voices and one must be aware how the instrument has been setup. Some have tremendous power & if the player is a soloist, often their violins are setup for ultimate projection, which is often not the most pleasant sound the record. To project, they often have a sharp edgy sound to reach the back of big halls. Obviously, the hall/room/space is critical if the reverb recorded will sound natural. To this end, I have sometimes used gut strings in the violins to create a softer, sweeter sound.
Often there is talk about the classic old tube mics. Even more important I feel is the microphone pre-amp being used. I've found, the resultant sound, of any recording, is the result of the signal path, in the whole chain. It's only as good as it's weakest link. Therefore, everything in this signal path must be at the same top level to realize all the goodies in this chain.
A case in point, was when I found a pair of NOS 1956 WE300b tubes. When these were placed into our custom mic pre-amp, the whole sound spectrum was taken to another level. (I was using new production WE300b before...no slouches!) The same happened when we made a battery supply to the 1st stages of the tubed record & playback amps for the Studers... everything makes a difference. There is no "free lunch"!
My 2c on recording...
Ed