Linda Rogers:

Coming out to a concert like that seems to me to have more value than
>putting on a CD of the Chicago Symphony one more time.  For one thing,
>it certainly had way more drama and sense of the unexpected.  Can't we
>do both?

Once you get by the "deadmeat" comment, Linda raises some interesting
points.  It is important to support live concerts, and my experience has
been that the very best concerts are unforgettable experiences.  So yes,
I agree that we can do both.  And despite my appreciation of recorded
music, and my appreciation of the huge repertory it makes available, it
is probably a healthy thing to remember that recorded music is not quite
the REAL THING, but a great representation of the REAL THING.

>I also find the artificiality of the recording process troubling.  I worry
>that it raises the bar too much to be sustainable.

The splicing of performances and the active, perhaps overactive role of
the engineers is indeed troubling.  Somebody on this list, once compared
the modern recording process to the output of a synthesizer- perhaps,
I hope, an overstatement.  But I find it interesting that on this list,
members so often recommend older recordings, when recording techniques were
simpler.  Many of these recommendations are of course made on musical and
interpretative grounds, but perhaps the older, simpler techniques allow
these qualities to be appreciated more directly.

>To have a tall and stable pyramid, you need a broad base, and it seems to
>me that the recording industry and recording consumers aren't supporting
>that base very well.

But there are many listeners, as Don Satz points out, who do not have
access to a great number of live performances.  In Boston there is much
more choice, but still a rather limited repertory.  And as far as the base
is concerned, the real problem is that classical music is a minority taste.

[log in to unmask] (Bernard Chasan)