Chris Bonds:

>A question: can anyone here share an experience of deciding an
>interpretation was perverse after many hearings? One of the things I'm
>wondering is: Do we too often listen to a performance once, decide it's not
>for us, without giving it a second, or third, or 7th chance? To what extent
>can repeated hearings of a recording actually change our notion of how a
>piece should be interpreted?

I heard Tocannini's recordings of the 2nd symphonies of both Beethoven and
Brahms many times before discovering Walter's, after which I could never go
back.  I heard I Musici's performance of some of Handel's Concerti Grossi
many times with satisfaction before hearing Harnoncourt's, the dancelike
qualities of which seem better suited to the music, and which wear better.
Similarly, after Gardiner's recordings of Handel's Water Music, others'
that I grew up on seem tiresome.  But you couldn't pay me enough to listen
to Norrington's recording of Beethoven's Ninth again--especially the
adagio--although the "O Freunde" solo is better than any I've heard.

Jim Tobin