Professor Chasan writes: >I think that HIP is fine, and I like many cds issued under its banner. >It just should not be taken as the be all and end all. ... That, after >all, is the way of research. People use the word "research" as though >it represented a monolithic movement toward THE TRUTH. That is not always >the way it works. For me the moral is that purists are wasting their time >unless they enjoy being purists. I love many HIP recordings myself. What they often bring to the party is clarity (important for playing Bach), rhythmic bounce (important for dances), and textural lightness, even astringence. But I do agree with Professor Chasan. Right now, I'm listening to Tureck playing Bach on the piano, and I'm just about raptured out (it's hard work being happy all the time). I agree completely with the sentiments expressed above. Somehow the phrase "artistic truth" - never all that specific in the first place - has become corrupted to the point where it allows people to talk about "correct" and "incorrect" and "right" and "wrong," the latter in a moral sense. For me, aesthetics and the arts are mainly about "better" and "worse" and "effective" and "ineffective." Steve Schwartz [It's getting so tht you can't swing a baroque violin around here without hitting a straw man. -Dave]