John Smyth wrote:

>Ironically I find Pletnev and Volodos--superhuman technique aside--to
>be pretty boring in the end.

Absolutely.  Pletnev's Pathetique was, IMHO, one of the most overrated
recordings I've evern been ersuaded to buy,

>I also think that Gergiev is a fraud: a Sinopoli with a bad beard and
>half the daring imagination.  His Rite of Spring was perverse in a bad
>way.

Oh, wasn't it just?  Glad to find someone else of like mind, after being
somewhat impressed initially, I have come to believe that he is all style
(1980s Miami Vice "style" at that) and no substance.

>In any case, I'm glad you have a soft spot for the Russian sound, but
>doesn't the canon bother you--just a little-- in Tchaikovsky's 1812?

And.  perversely, the only performance of *THAT* I know to make it sound
like music, is Mengelberg's 1940...

Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]>

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