Steven Schwartz wrote:

>Bach tells me different things than Mozart and Chopin, different things
>than from either.

One can only wonder what Bach tells Mr.Schwartz, when in the same breath
he says "I've liked Bach for harmonica ensemble." Is it that Bach tells Mr.
Schwartz that whatever Bach wrote is above criticism, and that therefore
listening to Bach must be the Rosetta Stone against which all other
composers and their performers, including Chopin and Mozart and their
performers, must be translated?

I am amazed at the arrogance of certain critics I have encountered on
this list, whom I would categorize not as "record collectors" but as
"record PURCHASERS," whose "droit de seigneur" seems to be based on the
number of recordings they have recently added to their collections, rather
than the perceptivity and discrimination in matters of taste and judgment
that should be the natural consequence of a lifetime of listening to music
seriously.

If one cannot recognize in Dinu Lipatti's playing, in the words of
one noted critic, "the lyricism, grace, elegance and verve, the unfailing
taste and feeling for continuity in phrase and large structure, in addition
to the precision of execution and tonal beauty," then we might be better
served here in discussing the number of angels that can dance on the head
of a pin.

John Dalmas
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