Bob Draper wrote:

>So, of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with just 'liking the
>sound' of a piece of music I, myself, am "guilty m'laud".
>
>However, I still believe that modern peformances are dishonest and
>give a false representation of the respective merits of a piece of music.
>Composers who wrote well for the instruments of their day are particularly
>prejudiced against.

Bob, given the first paragraph I've quoted from you, I can't quite agree
with your assessment given in the second.  But I realize that it's your
opinion...

>When we hear a classical piece played by the full ensemble of the Vienna
>Philharmonic what we are getting is something that is part composed by
>composer X from 16 or 17 something and partly composed by conductor Y from
>the 20thC.  Thus, this goes beyond interpretion.  It is rather like a pop
>song being re-recorded by a new band with 'fairy dust' sprinkled on the
>production.

Yes, but let's remember that the 'fairy dust' has been sprinkled on the
audience as well, coloring what they hear through all the music that's been
written subsequent to those times.  And at least the Vienna Phil (to my
limited knowledge) has the good sense not to tackle 17th century music,
though they can and do perform Mozart and Haydn credibly in my book, given
the right conductor.

>At least when we hear the Stokovski version of Bach's (?) famous toccata
>and fugue we know what we are getting; theme by Bach orchestrated
>Stokovski.  More often then not performers are not so honest.

Why would you say this? I have to defer to Todd McComb on this one, your
words sound quite similar to the anti-HIP diatribes one gets from the likes
of a Don Vroon.  Not the kind of company I'd like to see you keep!

>So when the layman in the street says "I like the sound of it" they are
>expressing their right to an opinion.  But exactly what is it they like?
>Unless the performance at least attempts at authenticity we can never be
>sure.

Of course, but those attempts, like anything else with music, are going to
be in the ears of the beholder as well as that of the performer.

But again, let me make the point that has been made before by myself and
others: the REAL value I see in HIP is not so much what it has done for
(or to, as some might say:-) music of the Common Practice era.  Instead,
it has helped resurrect entire centuries, ensembles and sounds, much of
which is vocally-based (and hence doesn't get much traffic on this List).
Music which might otherwise never have been brought back to life if we had
continued on our merry way of considering Western Classical music to be
exclusively the stuff of symphony orchestras, string quartets and modern
pianos.

Bill H.