Santu De Silva wrote:

>Firstly, I imagine Bach would have (maybe a Boston rather more); but would
>he have endorsed a Steinway as the keyboard instrument for the fifth
>Brandenburg, or would he, rather, have written new music for it?

That's right on the nail.

Baroque and classical composers (especially) wrote taking into account the
sonority and timbre of the instruments of the time.  They, also, in many
cases had specific venues in mind.  So it is reasonable to conclude that
the accoustics of the venue played some part in the composition.

These factors were more important then than now with acoustically designed
modern venues and modern instruments crafted to produce a sound that
projects further.

It is therefore quite sensible to assume that any composer transported to
the performance conditions of another era (but writing in their same idiom
as far as possible) would produce quite different works.

In trying to recreate conditions things can go wrong.  Adam Fisher's
Ezsterhazy Haydn series, for example, has an over resonant acoustic.
But, it seems to me that HIP is the only way to go.

I can understand individual reservations about a quite different sound to
familiar works.  But, isn't this something which can be worked through?

When I first heard classical music all I could listen to was romantic
and classical symphonies.  Slowly I acclimatised to other genre and time
periods.  Rather, like the first time one drinks beer and hates the taste
later to become a regular drinker.

Isn't this all that is required of the listener to period performance?

Bob Draper
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