John Dalmas writes:

>At the same time I feel I have to mention -- lest any of Don's readers
>come away with a limited impression -- recordings of this sonata, and
>very good ones in my view, that should have been in Don's library before
>he attempted such a survey.

John's "shoulds" belong to him; I have my own set of standards.  Limited
impression? I state up front what recordings I am reviewing and make no
inference that I am reviewing all recordings available.  Any list member
who assumes I am reviewing all the worthy recordings isn't reading very
well.  Further, the vast bulk of reviews that I read in periodicals or on
the net describe the "subject" recording and might mention one or two other
recordings, the whole review taking up a few small paragraphs.  I expand
on those types of reviews, providing a detailed evaluation of the "subject"
and the other versions included for comparison.  My point is that I
consider it unreasonable for a person to take issue with the recordings I
omit, since I include more than generally found in other reviews.  I have
no comment as to the quality of my reviews versus the reviews of others,
but I'm sure that I spend many more hours listening during the review
process than most other reviewers.  A reader can consider that to be of
value or not; I think it is significant.

>I'm thinking of Vladimir Ashkenazy's 1966 recording for Decca, and
>Leon Fleisher's earlier recording on Columbia...

I wasn't thinking of them at all.  Since John very much likes the Ashkenazy
and Fleisher versions, he might consider spending his time posting his own
reviews of these performances instead of complaining about what I review.
His complaints have no value; his reviews likely would be of value.  As
he leaves it at the moment, John has talked up Ashkenazy and Fleisher but
provides no insight or information as to what makes them great performances
or in what ways they are as good or better than comparative versions.  Does
he consider them superior to Richter, Tverskaya, Kempff, Damgaard, Planes,
Brendel, etc.? Why? Maybe he will give us his analysis, and we can
certainly benefit from additional informed opinions.

Don Satz
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