"Donald Satz" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Of course, there are many list members who have strongly indicated their
>preference for live performances over recorded ones.  Ms. Rogers, however,
>is the only list member I recall who has declared recorded performances as
>"dead meat".  I am curious as to how she arrives at such a negative view of
>the recorded medium.  I see recordings as an option for listeners; neither
>its intent nor its impact is harmful.

I was actually following a cosmology offered by another list member about
the ranking of the food chain in the music world and my comment seems to
have had a life of its own apart from the original post and a couple of
other follow-ups.  The original post was meant in a light vein, as was
mine. . . (and actually I'm a vegetarian).

I would probably agree with most list members who prefer live performances.
And I do find endless posts about what is the "best" recording of this and
that a tad tiresome, not being an audiophile, so perhaps I was a little
testy, especially after being taken to task for a light comment.  But
mainly I feel that CD's are nice but . . .

To listen to recorded music and seldom or never attend a live performance
is not only cheating oneself, but IS harmful to the very music the
classical CD enthusiast say they love.  Orchestras very, very seldom make
any money on their recordings.  It is the concert hall that keeps us alive
even if on average the tickets only make up 50% of the revenue.  The rest
comes from donations and grants attached to performance, not recording.

Furthermore, not to support the training ground of future musicians
by attending the less-than-perfect concerts of student and regional
orchestras means that the recording industry will have to just keep on
re-mastering old recordings because classical music will have no future.
I spent a number of years as a volunteer publicist for a terrific youth
orchestra and know how much it meant to the kids to have a full house-- and
their concerts were enjoyable and of a better quality than many regional
orchestras.  Coming out to a concert like that seems to me to have more
value than putting on a CD of the Chicago Symphony one more time.  For one
thing, it certainly had way more drama and sense of the unexpected.  Can't
we do both?

I also find the artificiality of the recording process troubling.  I worry
that it raises the bar too much to be sustainable.  This has implications
not only for live performance but for less high-tech recording, especially
the kind of (mostly) live recordings that orchestras did for local radio
and so on.  Performers are skittish about that now.  Some want to approve
the tape--not the performance for tape--but the tape itself, making some
local radio formats impossible.  There just isn't time and money for the
artist to sit down with an engineer and spend a day in edit. . .  so the
tape isn't made and local folks miss the opportunity to hear the home town
orchestra with the visiting star.

To have a tall and stable pyramid, you need a broad base, and it seems to
me that the recording industry and recording consumers aren't supporting
that base very well.

Linda Rogers