More Listening thoughts

The night before last I listened to Beethoven Piano Concerto #4 (Claudio Arrau, Colin Davis, Staatskapelle Dresden) and the perspective of the recording just seems all wrong to me.  I hear a big hall sound but I clearly hear lots of irritating and distracting up close noise (fingers on keys, paper turns, piano pedals) that are completely out of perspective with the big picture.  Very odd, and disturbing to the performances and interpretation in my opinion - this unpleasant combination of near and far.  It seems like I am listening artificially rather than somewhere. (somewhere imaginary would be fine)  I would like to be entranced somewhere by this recording, either in outer space or in a recording studio, but a least somewhere.  As it was I was kind of nowhere, or mixed up, unrespected.

Then I listened to Side 1 of Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom - what's not to like? (even after all these years)