Richard Tsuyuki wrote:

>This whole notion of "my music is better than your music" seems silly
>to me.

I think there is a stereotype:  any post to an internet discussion
containing words "classical" and "pop" seems to be mostly considered as
one more example of the really silly notion of "classical vs pop:  which
is better".

I put insufficient emphasis on what I wanted to say and, I admit, added an
out-of-place personal opinion about certain aspects I value in classical
music and miss in pop.  Because of this, the stereotype I pointed out in
the paragraph above forced many readers to start defending everyone's right
to any form of pleasure that I surely wasn't attacking because I agree with
it completely.

>You have people who like Stravinsky looking down on people who like
>Rachmaninoff looking down on people who like Solti

In the part of the Dicterow's interview I quoted, this absurd "ladder"
is present, although in an opposite way:  the renowned classical musician
seems to feel uncomfortable that he is so tightly connected with classical
music.  He is trying to assure the readers of the article that they
shouldn't think of him as an old fashioned person, a snob, an
"old-stick-in-the-mud" in his words.  This is what surprised (and
disappointed) me:  not the fact that he may be listening to soft rock
in his car but his implication that listening ONLY to classical is old
fashioned, not fashionable, one-sided, limited, narrow.

I disagree with this implication categorically and THAT is what I wanted
to say with my post.  Listening exceptionally to classical music and
completely ignoring pop, soft and hard rock, hip hop is appropriate and
nothing to be ashamed of.  The way Mr Dicterow put it, nowadays, being a
classical musician/listener, you must make certain excuses for it and add
that you like (better:  love!) pop because otherwise you'll be regarded as
a narrow-minded and uninteresting person.

Juozas Rimas Jr (not the one playing)
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/141/juozas_rimas.html