The problem with YouTube is mainly sorting through to find the good stuff. For example, I was looking for a good performance with good video and good sound of the Mozart Requiem to share with a friend and found the search function to just not work well. It turned up a lot of inadequate performances and then, as you scrolled down, was offering up other pieces of music entirely. Then, a few minutes later, I went to the main YouTube page and there was what I had been looking for: a 1988 film of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Requiem with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Choir. Here it is:
The YouTube algorithm is not your friend. I am constantly telling it not to offer up obscure pop music and dance on my personal page, but it keeps on keeping on.
YouTube contains thousands of absolute gems, but it hides them quite successfully. Looking for a good performance of the Symphony No. 7 by Shostakovich, the first on the list was Marin Alsop with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra. These clips from Frankfurt are really excellent in terms of video and sound: crisp and clear and the camerawork does not go overboard. The problem with this one, I am afraid to say, is that Marin Alsop delivers possibly the most boring Shostakovich I have ever heard. God knows it was tidy, too tidy, but it had about as much fire and passion as a trip to Macey's. How could you make this piece in particular sound dull? Wow. The next clip was Bernstein conducting, it is unclear, but I think the New York Phillies. That had all the fire that Alsop was missing, but no video, just audio. Next Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra. Lots of fire again, but no video. Next, the utterly authentic Leningrad Symphony conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, but no video and the sound was poor. Next is Semyon Bychkov conducting the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln in a concert in Japan with video. A brisk, no-nonsense performance.
The thing with this piece, I think, is that if you have ever heard it live, you will not be satisfied with any recorded performance because the dynamic range will be seriously compressed. No ordinary sound system as far as I know, can reproduce the 11 minute crescendo in the first movement from one snare drum played very quietly to the whole orchestra, with ranks of tympanists, trombones, trumpets, horns, etc. playing full blast.
Well, I have gotten a bit off-topic, but I think what I will do, from time to time, is post particularly good YouTube clips for your general edification and amusement.
6 comments:
Have you tried different search engines such as Bing or Duckduckgo? Very different search results on different engines. I think it is pretty clear that revenue potential is what is determining search engine results for google/youtube. You would have to provide a very detailed search request to have a decent chance of a target vid show up. General search is almost useless I find.
I've been using Duckduckgo as my main search engine for a few years now. But in this post I am referring to searching within YouTube.
I find it best to search within duckduckgo for youtube videos rather than in youtube itself. Attached are links to the applicable searches. Note that Alsop does not appear in duckduckgo.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shostakovich+symphony+7
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=shostakovich+symphony+7+youtube&t=ffsb&ia=videos&iax=videos
Now that's odd. I tried your llink and Alsop was the first clip on the list! In duckduckgo!
I wonder if your previous history affected your result. Did you clear the cache before trying the link? The point of the cache is to return you to listings you previously clicked on. Of course youtube doesn't depend on your cache but has more precise means of zeroing in on you so it may be more difficult to evade them. But when I did the search Alsop was no where to be found in duck but the first link in youtube.
I also use the Brave browser. But the way the algorithms work is certainly mysterious. Intentionally so, I'm sure.
Post a Comment