Ian Crisp <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Perhaps we can agree to the proposition that recordings and live
>performance are two very different modes of presenting and experiencing
>music, and each has its own positive and negative features.

Yes, this is certainly true, no disagreements.

>Each of us is somewhere on a scale from one to the other, and I seem to
>have settled to a position pretty near to one end...In the later years,
>I've come to find the best live performances so much more meaningful to me
>than even the best recordings that I've stripped my record / CD collection
>down to little more than a tenth of its former glory ...

I can understand the way you feel about live performance, what I disagree
with is how you feel about recordings.  I think you're not giving them
enough credit.

My problems with concerts are a combination of circumstances pretty much of
my own doing:  my size (I am 6'4") makes it uncomfortable for me to fit in
seats designed for pre-WWII generation audiences, freedom to move and hum
(in Glenn Gouldian tuning) are important to me while listening to much of
the music I love, add to that my phobia of disturbing others, and I find
the typical concert atmosphere pretty stuffy and stifling.  The way most
people dress up and act as if they are in a place of worship doesn't help
while I'm normally in shorts and sneakers.

My best concert-going experiences have always been those in informal
settings:  rehearsals, summer festivals (Ravinia was outstanding while I
lived in Chicago), informal chamber-music concerts in Europe and elsewhere
(mostly with not-so-famous groups, so only people who truly cared about the
music would be there), etc.

>Don Satz gave an eloquent description of some of the drawbacks of the
>concert hall, and I have to agree with him.  I'm far from being the
>sociable type and I dislike crowds as much as anyone.  It's just that the
>"highs" I get from good live performances are, to me, worth the things I
>have to go through to get them.

Yes, it's all a matter of tradeoffs.  Sounds like concerts cost me a bit
more than they do the average listener, maybe.

Ulvi
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