Richard Tsuyuki wrote:

>In expanding my music collection lately (it's still pretty basic), I
>have noticed that, listening to different performances of the same work,
>I almost invariably prefer the one I heard first and am most familiar with.

I think the psychological term "imprinting" is usually used here, and we're
all subject to it.  I've been listening to classical music for 35 years,
and there are plenty of cases where the performance I heard when I was 17
still seems to be the right one.  However, I've also found that the more
recordings and performances I hear, the less the power of imprinting.
Sometimes a new performance is so clearly superior to one heard earlier
that I immediately realize that the performance I imprinted on is dreck.
(An example I've used before:  I first learned Hummel's A minor piano
concerto on an old Turnabout LP; when I heard the Stephen Hough version, I
thought to myself, "Oh, now I understand how it's supposed to go.") One way
to fight against imprinting, assuming that you've imprinted on relatively
recent recordings, is to listent to historical conductors.  Once I began
listening to Furtwaengler, for example, I was not only exposed to some
tremendously powerful alternatives to what I had grown up with, but I came
to see that the interpretive options were much more varied than I had
realized, and that was very liberating for my ears.

Nick
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