Professor Chasan writes:

>I think that HIP is fine, and I like many cds issued under its banner.
>It just should not be taken as the be all and end all.  ...  That, after
>all, is the way of research.  People use the word "research" as though
>it represented a monolithic movement toward THE TRUTH.  That is not always
>the way it works.  For me the moral is that purists are wasting their time
>unless they enjoy being purists.

I love many HIP recordings myself.  What they often bring to the party
is clarity (important for playing Bach), rhythmic bounce (important for
dances), and textural lightness, even astringence.  But I do agree with
Professor Chasan.  Right now, I'm listening to Tureck playing Bach on the
piano, and I'm just about raptured out (it's hard work being happy all the
time).  I agree completely with the sentiments expressed above.  Somehow
the phrase "artistic truth" - never all that specific in the first place -
has become corrupted to the point where it allows people to talk about
"correct" and "incorrect" and "right" and "wrong," the latter in a moral
sense.  For me, aesthetics and the arts are mainly about "better" and
"worse" and "effective" and "ineffective."

Steve Schwartz

 [It's getting so tht you can't swing a baroque violin around here without
 hitting a straw man.  -Dave]