I don't have any qualms about the performances. They are up there but in term of recordings there arein my opinion some excellent recordings out there that are as good. I could pull several from the Reference Recording Catalogue or Harmonia Mundi and I can argue that Keith O. Johnson is as good as Layton was. We may not yet have a Wilma Cozart Fine and I am just snatching those examples while working on a project. There are several other examples of contemporary fine examples of recordings.
Yesterday music was also full of manure, it wasn't all great music. Even back then for every Mozart, Bach , beehtoven or Cesar Franck there were countless of drivel whose music is best but forgotten... True the signa to Npoise ratio may be lower with so many "Artists" today but , I think you got my points.
Last but not least .. One could argue that a PC and ADC is as simple as one can get and produce great recordings.
Sorry, but as much as I respect KOJ, he's not LL. For many reasons including orchestras and halls. Let's just say up the hall is 80% of the equation. And unfortunately the early RR releases on LP and CD didn't do Keith's work justice. I do wish he hadn't given up recording in parallel.
The new HMs are not IMHO the equal of their releases from the '70s with Pontrefact, Paulin and Studer.
So just for S&Gs, what current labels would you put up against Mercury, Decca, RCA, EMI, Nonesuch, Connoisseur Society or even Harmonia Mundi?
Or Blue Note, Impulse, Contemporary, Columbia or Riverside?
And unfortunately the early RR releases on LP and CD didn't do Keith's work justice. I do wish he hadn't given up recording in parallel.
