Kevin Sutton wrote:

>The tyranny of perfection that recordings have placed upon live
>performances is ridiculous.  Recordings have created a false standard
>that is nearly impossible to live up to on the stage, much to the
>discouragement and detriment of live concerts, in my humble, but
>professional opinion.

And as Ray Osnato pointed out, Aesop's fox would agree.  The detriment
here is only to less-talented performers; recordings have set a standard
for audience's ears and they now expect good music-making (although not
necessarily note perfection) from concerts.

However, there is a detriment to recordings of "live" concerts.
Rationalized in some way I cannot imagine, there is now a common
practice of recording a live concert, editing out mistakes, and then
releasing the recording with the erroneous label of "live".  This strikes
me as ridiculous and more to the point, unethical.  Why bother to include
the applause at the end, and label the performance as live, when it
clearly is not?  Furthermore, how can one possibly justify doing so?

Part of performance is the human aspect.  Hearing mistakes (on a limited
level, in a performance that is musical) in the heat of passion does not
detract from the performance; it enhances it.

Michael Cooper