Kevin Sutton wrote:

>Oh for God's sake let's get over this kind of nonsense.  Composers were
>(and are) human beings who had great talent.  They are not nor were they
>ever deities.  Sheesh.  I loved the old disco version of Beethoven's fifth
>in the 70's and have no problem with pop arrangements of the classics.
>"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" is a lovely song because of the sweet
>combination of Chopin and Judy Garland, not in spite of it.  If Vanessa
>Mae hooks a few teenieboppers on the classics, then more power to her.
>I get so bloody tired of the elitist attitude of CM lovers.  Jeeze, we
>want people to come to appreciate great music right.  Welllllll, I hate
>to inform the purists, but I got turned on to the classics via Wendy
>Carlos (then Walter) when I was in grammar school.  It didn't hurt me a
>bit!

I'm not a fan of Vanessa Mae, and I do think that there are better
violinists who do not get the attention they deserve, because as the music
industry dictates, they are not "marketable enough".  Nevertheless, I have
to agree with Kevin.  I have a part-time job in a classical record store,
and I love seeing people come in, from all walks of life, and ask about
getting "into" classical music.  What turns them onto it sometimes boggles
the mind.  For instance, this afternoon I had a customer come-in looking
for a dance version of Fur Elise.  Apparently he saw a stripper (nude
dancer) dancing to it, and he was really interested in getting it.  Our
classical section doesn't exactly carry techno/dance music, even if it's
re-done classical music.  However, he picked out a "Best of" Beethoven CD
with the original Fur Elise on it.  The moral of this is that we might have
another potential convert on our hands.  Maybe next time he'll want the
full version of the 5th, then the 9th, and so on, and that is certainly
nice to see.

The downside I see with the commercialization of classical music (a la
Bocelli, Vanessa Mae and especially Sarah Brightman), is that there are
people who all of a sudden become "experts" on the subject of classical
music after hearing Bocelli, Mae or some "poperatic" stuff like Sarah
Brigthman.  And what is frustrating with that is that in some case they
refuse to expand their musical horizons.  In those case I want to scream
and knock some sense into them, but all I can do is be polite.  Luckily,
this is more often the exception, rather than the norm.  Either way,
the haughty classical image has to go, how it's done I don't care, but
hopefully someday I hope to walk into a classical store, dressed in my
Pink Floyd shirt and jeans, and not be looked down upon as some inferior
bastard.

Milan Gowin
http://www.ualberta.ca/~mgowin