I just happen to have front row center balcony seats for the Philadelphia Orchestra. I have to say every thing you say is true. Even in, what I think are the best seats in the house you do not get the pinpoint imaging that you get on a record. Maybe if you got to stand were the conductor does, Man that must be cool…
What you do get is a very real sense of a lot of folks playing really together just out there…
Different conductors move sections around to suit themselves. It does not make as much of a impact as to image as you would think. One Guy ( I like music I don’t know who’s who) put the basses to the left and split and mixed the rest of the strings, to both front, left and right. That was pretty cool. There was defiant head turning there but if you heard it on a record, it would just be confusing. Looked kind of hard to conduct as well.
What is not missing is slam.
When the better part of 100 guys that know there stuff really get going. that’s slam. When the guy in the back hits the really big drum or the organist steps on the low pedal not only do you feel it in your chest, it can take your breath away…John