Donald Satz wrote:

>The first thing I read in American Record Guide is "Critical Convictions"
>where Don Vroon usually leads the charge toward some extreme position he
>is obsessed with.  Always interesting!  In the latest issue (July/August),
>he's barking about period performance practices, how dogmatic the
>adovocates are, how poor the musicans are, how so few artists and
>performers think well of it, and what a total waste the movement is...

I once had a private letter dialogue with Vroon on this general subject.
He wrote to me that it was perfectly OK with him that older music from the
Renaissance, for example, was performed on period instruments, presumably
because in many cases there are no modern counterparts.  But he got his
dander up when the music started moving into the Baroque, and the farther
period performance delves into the Classical and Romantic eras, I'm sure it
gets his goat even more.  Personally, I find this line of reasoning rather
inconsistent, but that's me.

>What I like about Don Vroon is that he writes what he thinks without regard
>for the responses of the readers.  That is refreshing in an era where
>speaking "correctly" seems to be considered the only acceptable avenue.

Well, his condescending attitude towards classical music lovers of
non-European descent finally led to my "response" of cutting ARG off the
next time I was due to resubscribe.  There are alternative sources of the
information I seek, and I chose to take them instead.  If that's not
"acceptable" to ARG partisans, my response is that I'd rather listen to
music rather than read Vroonspeak invectives.

Bill H.