Date: |
Thu, 5 Oct 2000 19:10:30 +0100 |
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Steve Schwartz wrote:
>There are conductors who do better in the studio - who, indeed, become more
>"themselves" in the studio. It's two different venues and two different
>processes. I wouldn't presume to rank these processes in terms of artistic
>merit, and therefore I find subsequent ranking of conductors based on a
>preference for one venue or another as tenuous as a house of cards built
>on top of a vaudevillian's spinning plates.
I agree with Steve's latter premise, but not with the former.
Those conductors who do better in studio are often the product of some
exquisitely brilliant production - so much so, that one sometimes wishes
the producer were given credit on the front of the disc rather than in
small print on the rear. I have yet to see a conductor give poor concerts
but excel in studio on his own merit - and I live around the corner from
Abbey Road and have been watching the field for quite some time.
On the other hand, there are a number of soloists who lack much presence
on the platform but have made good recordings. In concert, the visual
impression derived from their appearance - or virtual absence - can detract
from the sensation of the music-making. In studio, unseen, they sound
better.
Satoshi Akima wrote:
>Recordings may be an evil but they are equally necessary. Imagine the
>sort of help it would provide us had J.S. Bach left recordings of his own
>works? Recording is a critical way of documenting musical history. Indeed
>if it were not for recordings I doubt we would even be discussing Klemperer
>at all.
I don't deny the value of recording as a point of reference. But I do not
consider listening to a record to be a genuine musical experience. Music
must posses the ability to surprise and shock. A recording, once heard,
remains the same for all time.
Klemperer is reputed to have said: 'Listening to a recording is like going
to bed with a photograoh of Marilyn Monroe.'
"Norman Lebrecht" <[log in to unmask]>
|
|
|