Karl Miller wrote:

>While we are unlikely to ever know one way or the other, I too would
>like to think that Sarnoff recognized the human being, ...

A human being who refused to entertain Fascists, leaving his homeland.

>Are you suggesting that if Toscanini had played Bartok, your parents
>would have switched off the radio?

That very much depends upon which Bartok piece would have been played
(cetrainly not The Concerto For Orchestra).  Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn,
Tchaikovsky would have been assured of clear sailing.

>...  Some have suggested that for music to be a living art, it
>must evolve, and that we need to keep it fresh and not hold up the
>perspectives of the past as encapsulated in our recorded history.

Nevetheless don't forget most people want to relax to enjoy listening,
period.  After a long day's hard work they are not looking to preserve
the art or to do more work getting out their encyclopedias to read and
study.

>...  I am one who most often prefers that recorded history over the
>perspectives of the present.  I still choose my Koussevitzky recordings
>of the standard repertoire over any made today...even if the new recordings
>feature better sound quality.  I have also devoted a substantial amount
>of my professional life to preserving the performance history of the
>past.  But there are times when I wonder if doing so was ultimately in
>the best interest of the art.

Well by all means.  However you overlook the small fact that you are a
musicologist.  My parents didn't tune in their radio or TV for the same
reasons you choose to listen.  Somehow we have to find the way to stike
a happy medium (no pun intended).

Norman S.

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