I wrote:

>>I am steadily downgrading my opinion of Rachmaninov.  His symphonies
>>aren't up to much and others on this list have said that the piano
>>concertos are poorly structured. ...

Felix Delbrueck replied:

>Listen to R's own recording of his 3rd concerto and of his 3rd symphony.
>Still not great music upon repeated listening, I suppose - and the
>concerto recording has a number of flaws - but when you first approach
>these recordings, many things that sounded gratuitous or redundant before
>become blindingly clear.  Everything fits together into an inevitable
>whole and many details are so vivid as to evoke a flood of near-pictorial
>associations while one is listening.

To Felix and other I have to explain that by downgrading means from a very
high level to that of a composer I'd only listen to occassionally.  I think
I will always love his solo piano work though.

I will certainly lookout for Rachmaninov's own recordings.  It is always
fascinating to listen to a composer's own version of their works.  I loved
the Stravinsky recording I mentioned before.

This is particularly interesting in the context of statements by some
members of this group about a music score being an incomplete art form.
If this is so then is a composer's version of their work the definitive
article? In the case of Britten's Noyes Flude this would appear to be true.
But, the critics seem to suggest that in the case of Shostakovich, Berstein
etc others make a better job of it.

Bob Draper
Challenging Music's Paradigms
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