I said:

>> I have no problem with performing on period instruments, but am highly
>> against the notion that Beethoven would have prefered instruments of his
>> own time over the instruments of today.

Bill H said:

>I'll take your word for it, since I haven't figured out the technique of
>"channelling" directly to Beethoven to know his feelings on the matter....

Of course, we can only suppose, but based on the fact that Beethoven was
always very interested in new technological developments of instruments,
especially the piano, which began a great transformation during his
lifetime, I think we can say pretty crlearly that Beethoven would have
preferred his works on modern instruments to those of his time.  There are
times when Beethoven had to write "wrong" notes in the trumpets, or leave
them out on a certain note that was unplayable on the instrument at that
time.

Jocelyn Wang said:

>I wouldn't go so far as to call him anti-musical.  I wasn't wild about
>the recordings with the London Classical Players, as it seemed to have
>a chamber-music approach to orchestral music.  But it's hard to quibble
>with his conscientious approach to being faithful to Beethoven's scores.

Which is more musical? To be faithfully redacting a score written by
Beethoven, or to use the score as a point of discovery as to the music
which lived ephemerally in the mind of Beethoven? The experience of an
orchestra being true to the score is like visiting a museum full of
dinosaur bones - the only surviving artifacts of an era which can barely
be comprehended.  The experience of hearing a true interpretation is that
you find yourself in Jurrasic Park surrounded by creatures that, although
mutated with frog chromosones and imperfect historically, are none-the-less
living and breathing monsters that make your senses shiver.  To that end,
I prefer the latter.  Regardless of how Beethoven would think about having
his music compared to flesh-eating giant lizards.

Mark Landson
http://LandsonMusic.com