Anthony Plog on Music

Conversations with performers, composers, and entrepreneurs

Andreas Neubronner: The multi-Grammy Award winning recording producer of the San Francisco, London, Vienna (and more!) Symphonies

Anthony Plog, host
Eddie Ludema, producer
Date posted: Jan 5, 2024

Andreas Neubronner is a record producer and engineer who has won 8 Grammy awards. He has recorded great orchestras around the world and is known for his recordings of the Mahler Symphonies with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, his work with Baroque and Renaissance ensembles, and piano soloists Murray Perhiah and Igor Levit.


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Part 1

Andreas begins Part 1 talking about how he first came to work with Michael Tilson Thomas in London and his recordings of the Mahler cycle with the San Francisco Symphony. Using those sessions, Andreas gives an overview of how recordings are made, from the initial shipping of equipment and set-up, how live concerts are recorded, what a patch session is and how they're run (...and how much money each minute of the session costs!) Andreas also mentions some background of recording tech specifics, including how the human mind perceives stereo sound (and the difficulty of implementing 5.1 surround sound in an orchestral setting.) We end Part 1 with a discussion of Baroque music, and how performance practice has changed over the last 30-40 years.

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In Part 2, we continue our discussion of Baroque music, with an emphasis on phrasing and harmony. Since Andreas has released recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations with two of the finest pianists in the world - Murray Perahia and Igor Levit - I ask him to talk about what it's like to record these two musical giants. We discuss how he got started on his musical path, and also what he sees for the future of recording.



The podcast theme music, Four Sierra Scenes, written by Anthony Plog, is taken from Crystal Records S205, copyright ©1980 Crystal Records Inc., and is used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.