[log in to unmask] writes:

>I think that if one listens only to recordings, and never any live
>concerts, then he is not qualified to be a critic.  Studio wizardry can
>do so much to enhance a recording, that nowadays, nearly anyone can sound
>pretty good.  The tyranny of perfection that recordings have placed upon
>live performances is ridiculous.  Recordings have created a false standard
>that is nearly impossible to live up to on the stage, much to the
>discouragement and detriment of live concerts, in my humble, but
>professional opinion.

I think the idea that technical the perfection of studio recordings has
hurt the concert industry is a myth started by second-rate musicians
whose technique or performing ensembles were lacking in their own
technique.  A simple case of making recordings look bad so their own,
rather lacklustre performances, look better.

There was a time in my life where I may have agreed with Mr. Sutton,
but with age comes new insights and now i would have to say that recordings
have not really hurt the concert scene.  I think Mr. Sutton is correct
in saying that a recording is always (I would change the adjective to
'usually') note-perfect but to say that a listener would perfer the
recording to the live experience does not exactly hold true from where
I sit.

Anyone who has heard a live performance of a work they have on records
can tell the difference.  Orchestras and instrumentalists today have a
technical virtuosity unparalleled in the history of music and, barring
some normal mishaps -- horn cracks, oboe squeaks -- a concert performance
can be as well executed as a recording.  What a recording lacks, however,
is the sense of spontaneity of a live performance.

I have collected live performances for quite some time and would take
a live performance tape over a commercially produced studio performance
nearly any day of the week.  Take Bernstein, for example: In the studio
he could sometimes sounds self-conscious, like he was trying too hard
to make his point.  Concert recordings find him free and improvisatory,
with phrases breathing more naturally.  The same can be said of Haitink,
Chailly, Wigglesworth and other podium personalities.  Having heard
Hamelin at the keyboard in recital I can attest to the fact that he is
far more exciting in person than on discs.

Attendance is not down at concerts, at least not in the Metro New York
area of the East Coast, where I reside.  Halls are pretty much full and
people are very forgiving of any concert flubs.  They feel the tension,
the sense the risk-taking that one gets only in live performances and
they feel priviledged to have been at a special event, rather than being
reduced to just another person listening to a record in their bath robe
and bunny-slippers.

Sergiu Celibidache summed it up rather well when he said, "Listening to
a recording of a work is like going to bed with a picture of Bridgette
Bardot." Only he was not speaking about excitement, or tension.  Celibidache
was speaking about how much musical information is perceived at a live
concert which not picked up by the microphones.  The idea of overtones
and how one hears them in the concert surroundings is one not much
discussed and best saved for another thread.  But I will say that, as a
'professional musician' (conductor/pianist) I have always been aware of
the acoustical properties of music and my performances have reflected
that.

So, if by 'perfection' Mr. Sutton means 'note-perfect execution' I
agree with him whole heartedly.  But I also put forward, in my own humble
professional opinion, that a live concert gives a far 'more perfect'
rendering of a wok, flubs and all, than any recording can.  I also think
that audiences, by and large, know this and that concert attendance is
not hurt by the recording industry.

I remember going with friends to Carnegie Hall to hear Karajan and the
VPO play Bruckner's 8th.  I had never heard the VPO under Karajan before
but was of course familiar with their commercial recordings.  The concert
was wonderful and I had never heard an orchestral sound like that before
in my life.  We all left the concert hall speechless, until I broke the
silence with, "Gunther Breest should be shot."

Respectfully submitted,

Raymond J. Osnato