Mimi Ezust wrote:

>I have found, though, that with an open mind and heart, I can find beauty
>(and often profundity) in almost any performance if the music is good
>enough.

Well said--open mind and heart.  True art is always more than the sum of
its parts.  The players, conductor and composer are creating something
together, something that is more than the composer's intentions, greater
than the players' virtuosity.  Beethoven wanted his music to go "from the
heart, to the heart," right? So, in my opinion, there can be no precisely
right or wrong methodology.

I think Harnoncourt has the idea--though I don't always like his result.
He mixes modern and period instruments, uses knowledge of old performance
practice to enhance his interpretation of the music.  But he is the first
to say that he cannot create an "authentic" performance, only a
"Harnoncourt" performance.  (I have yet to decide whether that is humble
realism or an excess of ego.)

In another way, I think of Bernstein's performance of Beethoven's 9th
in Berlin, December 1989.  Not historically "authentic" instruments or
playing styles, not even the original lyrics.  But, oh, what an event!
IMHO artistic license in the best sense.  A gay American Jew leading a
multinational orchestra/choir singing about freedom on the rubble of the
Berlin Wall.  OK, so I'm a sentimental sap.  But arguments about the proper
tempo of the 3rd movement evaporate in the heat of such an Occasion.

One other example and I'll quit-- Klemperer's 1960 (1961?) recording of
the Bach St.  Matthew Passion.  Funereal tempi, romantic manners, too many
performers.  But what of a post-WWII expatriot German Jew conducting a
British orchestra/chorus at the height of the cold war in the crowning
musical opus of baroque Christendom? The shadow of the Holocaust stretches
long and heavy across the Passion story.  There are layer upon layer of
meaning and irony in the performance that have nothing to do with the
palatability of the performance to musical historians.  Granted, I'd much
rather listen to Herreweghe's (spelling?) performance.  But something about
the Klemperer transcends the sound, style and words to say something more.
The heart is drawn on to deep thoughts about our history, human frailty and
our vulnerability to injustices that we perpetrate against ourselves.  What
does all that have to do with Bach's intentions and the limitations of his
musical forces? It doubtless builds on his foundation, but in ways (and
with forces) he could scarcely have imagined.

For this amatuer vocalist, music is ALL about the heart.

OK, fire away everyone, I certainly opened myself up for it!

Jim Saunders
Portland, OR USA