One thing to keep in mind when dealing with "classic" recordings is the time in which they were made. HVK's heyday was in the 50's and 60's and the recordings were limited to what was available at the time.
Likewise, RCA's Living Stereo (Reiner) series is lauded as some of the best renditions available* but even though they used SOTA equipment and techniques of the time, that was basically in the 50's. Remember, SOTA was tape recorders and records.
In fact, virtually all of the "old " (Szell, Haitink, Walter) stem from this era so any recordings you find may have some blemishes that plagues all recordings of the era.
Now, I'm sure you can find "technically" better recordings, in the pure mechanical nuts and bolts sense, but the artistry in the performance may or may not equal what some of the old masters could muster.
Sometimes it boils down to a choice between music or sound. I like roots rock, rockabilly, and western swing AND I also like great sound so I have to make a choice: Do I listen to the music I like, which sometimes sounds like it was recoreded in a garage with one mic (not far from the truth), or do I want a SOTA recording of music of I'm not overly fond.
That is always a problem. I find that if I do not wish to play the music very loud, the hiss from
good recordings from fairly early 1950's and later does not bother me too much. But with things like Beethoven symphonies, the desire to play them fairly loud is strong.
And you are right that the Living Stereo series has quite a few great performances.
It gets really bad if you like people like Caruso and early Louis Armstrong recordings. I have found the Naxos release of Caruso acceptable (probably as good as one will ever hear them) and the
JSP release of Louis Armstrong with the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens acceptable (probably as good as one will ever hear them). But there is substantial noise; they are mono 78 RPM record quality.
(On the plus side with those very early recordings, they were not able to artificially compress the dynamic range, so the performers simply played in such a way that they did not exceed the dynamic capabilities of the medium, and so there is no unnatural sounding compression on them. If only they chose to do that with all modern recordings of things...)
With Herbert von Karajan, although I agree that, overall, the performances of the Beethoven symphonies in the 1960's are better than the others, they are not that much better. If one really dislikes hiss, the 1980's recordings are the ones to get.
On the other hand, there are great modern musicians. I have never been displeased with a performance by
Jeanne Lamon and Taffelmusik. That, by the way, is the best performance I have ever heard of the Brandenburgs, and there is plenty of competition for playing them, so one must be extraordinary to play them the best. But they have not recorded all of the Beethoven symphonies, and I am not at all sure that they would be ideal for them. But they are not limited to Bach, and are great with
Handel as well.
