Donald Satz wrote:

>The composer Ned Rorem provided an article in a recent Gramophone.  I found
>some of his statements very interesting:
>
>"The performer has become the star - the recreator is more important
>than the creator.  Itzhak Perlman lives across the street from me -
>he seems very imperious and self-satisfied and not an adventurous
>performer - but he makes in one evening what I make in five years."
>
>Do you think there's something wrong with this situation, or is Rorem just
>having a case of "sour grapes"?

In the opening of Chapter 13 of Hofstadter's *Le Ton beau de Marot* there
appears the following dialogue that one might "easily overhear in any big
city or university town:

   He: Did you hear--Vladimir Horowitz is in town, and is giving a
   recital on Saturday!

   She: Oh, wow--let's go!  Say, what's he playing?

   He: Don't have the foggiest.  It didn't say, on the poster I saw.
   But it'll be great.  Horowitz always is.

   She: Ah, Horowitz--what a pianist!  I could listen to him play forever!"

Walter Meyer