Raymond Chan informes about a funny fight between Jeanne Lamon, defender
of period instruments performance, and -- at the opposite corner-- Pinchas
Zukerman, who hates everything that concerns it (see Raymond's message
dated 4/7/00).  Here are some comments:

1) The death match suggested by Miss Lamon, in which two orchestras
perform the same work alternatively in original and in modern instruments,
and later the audience votes, is --at least-- ennoying.?Should I pay for
hearing the same work played twice?.  (A good matter of discussion for the
thread "repeats").  I think that a controversy between these two views
could be settled through some more interesting topics (and better
arguments) than "who sells more CDs".

2) Miss Lamon is angry because, as she says, Pinchas Zukerman hasn't
changed his interpretation of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" in the last 25
years.  Yes, all we know it, but that's his aesthetic choice.  I don't see
why is it "outrageous".  You could criticise the interpretation in itself
(personally, I don't like it), but not the fact whether he did or did not
change it.  Besides, Pinchas Zukerman has performed and recorded in these
25 years a much wider range of music than Miss Lamon, who has been playing
only baroque works, always with the same intruments and practices.
According to her own criterion, isn't it "outrageous" too?.

3) As I've said in other thread, performance in original instruments
is just a different --and sometimes merely speculative-- approach to the
music of some composers.  I don't think that "original" performers have the
last word about it (this is a fable that has been going around since many
years).  Let me say: I like original instruments very much (I've had some
experience on it), and I love many original instruments recordings, but
I don't reject older interpretations:or could someone say seriously that
Karl Richter or Fritz Busch played a "false" St. Matthew's Passion just
because they didn't use the "right" number of players and modern oboes?.
(A question about the "right number of players" and the "right
instruments"...how could you apply it in a work as 'Kunst der Fuge'?)

4) I repeat: I don't like Pinchas Zukerman playing baroque works.  I'm not
defending a "traditionalist" player against an "innovative" one.  I just
say that Mr. Zukerman and Miss Lamon should make love and not war...  (an
interesting child can born from it...)

Pablo Massa
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