--- On Sun, 15/2/09, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > The most recent batch of concert pianists have the same > risk-averse approach to classical music. Rather than > go-for-broke interpretations, interesting rubato, or novel > interpretive quirks, contemporary players are prone to > produce sterile, error-free renderings. By > "sterile," I mean you hear the piece perfectly > produced, but do not connect to it at any point, and leave > the hall feeling like a ghost. Don't go to many concerts or know how "recent" Eric means, but does this apply to recordings? I go to the books when choosing versions of classical music (the Penguin or Gramophone guides) and if they both thumbs-it-up that'll usually do me (they often don't, go figure?): but take the biggest of double-thumbs-up and go on Amazon and you'll still find reactions to, say, Uchida's version of Mozart's piano sonatas (http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00005QDYG/ref=cm_cr_pr_link_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&pageNumber=2) or Gardiner's Beethoven's symphonies (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Symphonies-ORR-%C2%B7-Gardiner/review/product/B0000057EO/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1)that echo Eric's comments on sterile, technical perfection; the same recording entrancing some and repelling others. What lies behind this divergence? Reasonable disagreements as to where artistic value lies? Unreasonable ones? Unavoidable ones, since artistic values like bringing out interlocking patterns to exhibit the formal, structural properties of the music might simply conflict with making the music more emotionally expressive or surprising [cf. Bach]. Taking our pre-formed standards into any act of evaluation (a friend once suggested to me that the first version of any classical piece with which you familiarise yourself is usually then the one that will seem the natural standard-bearer)? Do commercial pressures underpin risk-averse performances, particularly with recordings? [Karajan's Beethoven is now a bit too slick for me, but I can almost taste its appeal to the Merc-driving bourgeoisie and how he and the BPO would be a global cash-cow for DG). I'm not likely to buy a second version of most pieces (only once have I gone mad and simultaneously bought five versions of the Goldberg Variations) so how can I second-guess the books, especially given that nearly all the recommendations have some kind of excellence? One of the few times I've had pause is over their top-rated harpsichord versions of Bach's Gg Variations (Hantai) and The Art of Fugue (Moroney), and here my 'disagreement' is really only that, compared with the piano, the harpsichord sounds cold and inexpressive an instrument. The world of pop and rock raises similar questions of course and worse: if you look at AMG on-line or read magazines like 'Mojo' it sometimes seems that the reviews and the star-ratings are phoned-in from different and differing departments. Donal Adding music once again to the long list of ting I must learn more about ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html