Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>Kevin Sutton:
>
>>If you go back to the vaults you will also find tons of tedious Baroque,
>>Romantic and Classical music that no one plays anymore. Why?
>>Because it stinks!  The good stuff survives, and this will happen with
>>music of our own time.  We probably won't be around to see it though!
>
>I think this is too sweeping, although partially true.  If we apply the
>criterion that music no-one plays any more is necessarily bad, then it's
>just as well Mendelssohn et al thought Bach was worth resurrecting after
>years of neglect.

Good point.  However, you must admit that there is probably a good reason
that we don't hear concerts of Thalberg these days.

>There would also be a fair percentage of some CD companies' catalogues
>that are also beyond the pale for the same reasons, but there must be
>enough people who find the music listenable and worth buying for the
>companies to keep recording it.

I am not so sure that the companies are making a profit off it, nor do I
think that the 'record everything' mentality will last.  Speaking again
from my experience in the record business, I know that the labels all
jumped on the band wagon to get as much music onto cd as possible.  The
catalogues and the bins were simply glutted with product.  What do I see
now? A better selection in Tower's cutout bins than in the regular stock.

>May the foragers in the vaults continue to find treasure for us to enjoy!

No argument from me here, but let's hope that they get the good stuff.
So much of what spewed out of the record companies at the height of the
cd newness craze was pretty lame.  Even the famed Heinichen Concerti that
were such a big deal on the scene a few years ago are now lying in multiple
copies in the remainder bins.  Great music like Bach will survive.  It may
fall into occasional disuse, but it is of sufficient artistic merit to come
back and hold its own.  I don't think that you can say this of Salieri,
Thalberg, MacDowell, Kuhlau and many others of the second string ilk.  (Now
I await the tirades from fans of the above mentioned.)

Kevin