Bob Draper wrote:

>... the fact that people Judge by the name rather than the performance.
>It's like Pavlov's dogs.  The listener starts salivating in anticipation
>of a performance by Karajan before a note has been played.  But when it's
>the Prague Chamber Orchestra without conductor an anticipation of disaster
>exists.

1- When Bob Draper says "The listener starts salivating in anticipation of
a performance by Karajan" he is agreeing that Karajan uses to have a very
good performance, or - obviously - they would not salivate (since it would
be not the expectative).

2- And more: he says people judge by the name (not by the performance),
but he forgets that, if some "salivates" is because already judged the
performance many and many times before become a "salivator", since the
"Pavlov Effect", as anyone knows, needs the continuous repetition of the
same experience-feeling.

3- When he choose HvKarajan, he is implicitly saying he thinks HvK is
great.  Ergo, he is fighting against something that he ownself agrees...

4- Any way, I agree with his point of view (but not with his politeness).
I wrote somethings about this good "Big Names" discussion on the Subject
"Mozart's Pieces for Piano Solo" (19/08/99).

Regards
Renato Vinicius