In the opposites seating, the 2nd violins are facing the rear of the stage, so if you hold with the directional-sound bit, it would be counterproductive to seat them that way.
The cellos, of course, face front, so their sound is more directed at the audience, and the violas are at enough of a slant and their role is usually subservient enough in the score that having them angled as they are doesn't really diminish their sound.
Personally, I prefer the opposites seating -- it really makes contrapuntal passages come alive in my mind. Having 1sts and 2nds all next to each other simply muddies the sound, all those fiddles slightly out of phase with each other!
Darcy James Argue wrote:
On Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 04:57 PM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
Of course, I also think all orchl. music before Mahler shd. be played with the violin sections sitting opposite each other,
Not just *before* Mahler* but *including* Mahler, too, right? Zander does it this way for his Mahler recordings and performances, presumably because that's the way Gustav did it.
When were orchestras re-arranged to put all the violins on the same side? I much prefer the earlier "stereophonic violins" setup.
- Darcy
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