[F_MINOR] Bach D minor concerto

[Bill Larson <wwlarson@JUNO.COM>]

This is my first post to the list, and it's a rather odd inquiry.  I've
long enjoyed the Bernstein recording on the Great Performances record,
but the vinyl has exhibited a strange characteristic that raises a question.

The recording is, of course, in mono.  However, the very last chords of
the first and third movement pan out to stereo-- especially noticeable
through headphones (go listen and see if I'm nuts).  This means one of
three things, I think:  the recording was mastered in stereo, and panned
to mono throughout, with a careless engineer putting the pan pots back
into their regular position a bit prematurely; the tape at the last
notes was in such bad shape that a contemporary stereo recording was
cross-faded to mask tape dropouts; or fake stereo/reverberation was
added, just at the end, to mask aforementioned dropouts.

This has bugged me for years, and I would love to learn that a stereo
master exists (1957 wasn't that early in the stereo game--RCA recorded
stereo masters starting in 1954).  Has anyone else noticed this?  Does
it happen on the Great Performances cassette and CD issues?

By the way, if anyone is in Baltimore on April 10, I'll be playing the
Goldbergs at the First Unitarian Church downtown at 2 p.m.

Bill Larson, in Pittsburgh, PA

**************************************************
Signoff instructions, and user preference interface:
http://email.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=f_minor&A=1

F_minor Website (with early archive):
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mwatts/glenn
**************************************************