Mark Seeley wrote:

>The standard repertory that was once a safe haven is now the target.
>In the core repertory, few, if any, of today's conductors are able to
>create the kind of excitement that made their predecessor's recordings
>hot commodities.  The market seemingly isn't able to sustain the newest
>interpretations of the "warhorses."

Here's a heretical thought:  I wonder how much of the excitement
associaed with the old recordings is due to the fact that there weren't
many recordings of a given work then, so every one that came out was an
eagerly anticipated event.  Now, of course, as you say, we are oversupplied
with the warhorses, so new versions have a hard time fighting through the
crowd.  (Though I must say that Harnoncourt makes the LvB nine pretty
exciting for me, anyway.)

Generally, the CDs that excite me these days are contemporary works (where
it is more the composition itself than the performance that excites me,
if they can be separated from each other) and some out-of-the-beaten-path
areas of the old stuff that for one reason or other I haven't gotten around
to until now.  Probably there are enough other potential consumers like me
that the companies could make good money off of, if they put some effort
and thought into marketing their wares the right way.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]