Posted by js on May 29, 2003 at 20:23:30:
In Reply to: Re: B&S 4P posted by Doug on May 29, 2003 at 20:06:21:
I have news for some of these guys. European orchestras do not play as # as many believe. Some may play at A=442 (as many folks tend to do in the U.S. - some unintentionally...and unfortunately, as these "sharpies" often tend to do so when most others in their ensembles are trying to play at A=440), but the not-quite-true belief that Euro orchestras play super-sharp began to be spread decades ago when a lot of cheapo l.p.'s of Euro orchestras hit the U.S. record shops.
Since there is a limited amount of groove space on l.p.'s and those trying to sell no-name Euro orchestra l.p.'s were using "price" and "quantity of music" to attract buyers, quite often recordings were sped up a bit to fit, say, a 21-minute symphony in 20 minutes of groove space. That way, two symphonies could be put on one l.p. rather than just one.