While the vast majority of modern recordings (in all genres) are multitracked and mixed down, a few labels and producers still prefer to record their performers "live," in a real acoustic space, direct to two-track. Such recordings, done right, have a naturalness that cannot be surpassed.
I've noticed that jazz and classical producers, using this method, typically take very different approaches to arranging the musicians on the stage.
Most of the "minimalist" jazz recordings I've heard separate instruments of similar timbre as widely as possible -- saxophone far left, trumpet far right, for instance. With larger ensembles, the brass instruments are spread across the front of the stage, separated enough that you can easily make out who is playing what.
Minimalist classical recordings, by contrast, tend to cram all the musicians together as close together as possible in the center of the stage. The smaller the ensemble (think string quartets and piano trios), the more closely they are grouped. The effect on playback is more like wide, deep mono than a good stereo spread, and this makes it more difficult to follow the individual lines of, say, first and second violins.
I realize that this follows live performance practice -- this is how the ensembles would seat themselves onstage at an actual venue, and how you would hear them in the audience. But sometimes I would like to hear a little more separation, to be able to follow the individual parts better when the arrangement gets busy.
Are there any minimalsist classical chamber recordings you know of that place the players further apart, more like they would be spaced in a jazz recording?
