Music Lane

Nice Comments and Historical Perspective!

24.6.244.42

In Reply to: RE: Cultural immersion followed by a deliberate break with tradition posted by Bambi B on April 07, 2008 at 18:31:24

I love your summation of Moravec (someone who takes the best of the romantic 19th century in piano and applies a rational 20th-century poetic attitude) - as paradoxical as it may seem (a rational, yet poetic attitude?), that statement is spot on, as far as I'm concerned. (OTOH, I think I have quite a bit less appreciation of Schiff and Perahia than you do - oh well!)
For me, the bottom line, in answer to Brian's original question ("Is good interpretation the birthright of 19th century musicians?"), is: No. Modern performances are DIFFERENT from those of earlier eras, sometimes better sometimes worse, depending on the individual performer and the work performed. The trouble with modern performances is that fewer listeners have heard them, and there is less of a "critical mass" of shared experience with them. Everyone has heard Rachmaninoff as played by Horowitz - far far fewer have heard Rachmaninoff as played by Lugansky or Melnikov. A lot of inexperienced listeners rely on critical consensus, and there can't be a critical consensus if the performer hasn't even been heard.

Edits: 04/08/08

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