Commenting on Christoph von Dohnanyi, Franz Welser-Moest said, "What
makes Christoph special compared to quite a few other colleagues of his
generation is the craftsmanship he knows. That's what I believe in as
well. Craftsmanship is a necessity to build art. Anything else is
charlatanry."
It is that last line I find particularly striking.
"Craftsmanship is a necessity to build art. Anything else is
charlatanry."
There's a certain moral force in the use of that word, "charlatanry".
A friend of mine told me to try a a thought experiment: Try imagining
Bernstein uttering the same comment.
I can't do it. Can you?
I think there is a huge wall of separation between Welser-Moest and the
Bernstein/Eschenbach axis -- and the taller the wall the better, in my
humble opinion.
Mark