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From: sdo@brunix.UUCP (Scott Oaks)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re:  Live performances
Message-ID: <12189@brunix.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 16-Feb-85 12:29:05 EST
Article-I.D.: brunix.12189
Posted: Sat Feb 16 12:29:05 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Feb-85 20:15:07 EST
Lines: 56


[]
>Are there any netters who go to concerts regularly (or perhaps irregularly)?
>Or does everybody sit home and play their audiophile LPs and CDs through
>stereo systems which draw only slightly less power than ENIAC I?
>
>Amidst all this talk of new releases and "why my CD doesn't reproduce a
>44kHz square wave" and "who cares if your CD doesn't ...", everybody seems
>to have forgotten the incomparably greater thrill of being where the
>music is made. Or maybe those who do are too busy going to concerts to
>post news...

Would that I had a system which drew only slightly less power than an ENIAC
I!  Or a CD player.  Yet even if I did, there's nothing that could entice
me into staying at home when given the oppportunity of going to a live
concert:  the gulf between recordings and concerts simply is too large to
ignore.

Part of this is because a live concert creates a certain tension which
recordings can never recreate--and not simply because there's a chance that
the performers don't have the benefit of splicing together 12 different
takes of a difficult section (of course it a perfect recording--even I
could get it right given enough attempts!).  It's more the knowledge that
this moment is unique which gives to a live concert the intangible
advantage over even the best recording.

Also is the fact that whenever one listens to a recording, it cannot
surprise one (except on first hearing).  One always knows how the piece is
to be interpreted, just how the soloist is going to play the cadenza, just
how much cresendo will accompany this section. . .  I have innumerable
recordings at which I can marvel every time I hear them simply because the
music can never fail to stir me or the performance is so satisfying--and I
wouldn't give them up for anything.  But it's much more satisfying to hear a
different (even if only slightly so) approach to the piece: even if it's a
mediocre performance or an interpretation with which I disagree, it can
never fail to give a different aspect to a piece of music.  Recordings are
severly limited in this respect.

Unfortunately, Providence is hardly the music capitol of the world.  But
Boston is only 50 miles away, and if it's sometimes difficult to get
there, it's always well worth the effort.  Now, if I could just convince
the graduate school here that expenses here really ought not be
allowed to deplete my already too small bank account. . .

On another subject:  Is anyone out there fond of Michael Tilson Thomas?
And can they tell me why he has such a brilliant reputation?  I have never
really liked him, and became convinced last summer (during a series of
concerts at Ravinia) that he has made his reputation merely by being always
available when other conductors become sick (and that his reputation is
undeserved is witnessed by the fact that he has no permanent position with
anyone).  I was surprised to find that all of my friends agreed on this
point, and wondered what everyone else thought.

Scott Oaks
Brown University
{decvax, ihnp4, allegra}brunix!sdo