Christopher Webber writes: > Mr. Morrison responded as he did to Joyce Hatto's Rachmaninov, largely > because as he listened he had before him the vision of plucky, little old > lady battling not only Rachmaninov but cancer. He responded as most of > us I hope would, with generous admiration for her remarkable achievement. > Unless we're looking for a mechanised objectivity which would be intolerable > even if it were achievable, I think we should rather applaud his humanity than > deride his critical acumen. I can't agree in the least with Mr. Webber. First, let me state that I have no interest in deriding Mr. Morrison's critical acumen. He is human and made a mistake; I would simply hope that he would accept his error, give thought as to how to avoid such errors in the future and just move on with his life. I also have no interest in applauding his humanity, because that's not his job as a reviewer of recordings. That Ms. Hatto was very sick is not relevant when commenting on the merits of a recorded performance. As a reader of reviews, I don't want reviewers giving a performer brownie points for poor health. Put another way, have we reached the point where the "health-o-meter" is a consideration in the reviewer's conclusions? I hope not. Hatto's husband conducted a criminal activity for self-serving purposes. He conned the world of classical music but was eventually exposed for the "low-life" person he has been for decades. I have no knowledge that Ms. Hatto had any involvement in this mess and harbor no ill feelings towards her. However, that certainly does not mean that I am going to award her any accolades for contracting a deadly disease. The fact is that this whole mess revolves around her husband; he's the guy to concentrate on. Don Satz [log in to unmask] *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html