Bernard Chasan:

>So whatever losses must be endured from listening to records versus live
>music,(and I am not sure what Ian has in mind) the payoff is huge.  (IMHO,
>as usual.)

I have nothing against recorded music.  As Bernard points out, it is the
only way most of us have access to a vast range of music; and for many of
us unable to get to live music (except for the half-way house of live radio
/ TV / net transmissions) it is the only way we can experience music at
all.  Right now I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of a recording of a
concert performance that I could not possibly have attended and that has
been very highly praised by someone whose judgement I trust.

What has become more important to me in recent years is the
heat-of-the-moment interaction between performers and audience.  Good
recording will sometimes let you feel something of that, but recording
cannot replace the fact of being there and being part of that interaction
as it happens and develops.  I always felt that very strongly in the jazz
side of my listening, but it took much longer to become a central part of
my classical music experience.

Often the record-collectors here will argue over a detail of interpretation
of some particular piece in different recordings, and I just want to shout
at them "You can't possibly judge one of these as 'better' than the other
- you weren't *there*!"

Ian
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