Mimi Ezust writes:

>For crying out loud, Zukerman already plays violin AND viola like a god,
>AND he is also a fine conductor.  His tone on the viola especially always
>gives me goosebumps, even when he's tuning.  Why not complain that he
>doesn't play the marimba or bass trombone, wear red socks, paint like
>Picasso, and eat pickled herring with chopsticks? So he doesn't like HIP
>...  so what? There are dozens of HIPSTERS who don't like modern
>instruments.  Let them play what they enjoy and do best.  There's plenty
>of music to go around for everyone."

Perhaps I should have picked a better example.  My point was that maybe
*Zukerman* wants to play Baroque.  If not him, lots of other non-HIP
performers.  And record Baroque stuff.  I merely say, we ought not to
create a climate where they feel as though they're forbidden from recording
Baroque works.

It's not commercially viable because our existing classical music culture
(or at any rate, the subculture of CD buyers) seems to go to specialists
for everything.  And we don't like a Beethoven specialist playing Schubert,
for instance.  And this is nonsense, and I'm deploring it, but the facts of
supply & demand are stubborn.

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