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Defining and imprinting

Elders grew up listening to the likes of Heifetz and Oistrakh, Horowitz and Rubinstein and Richter, Starker and Rostropovich, Callas and Fischer-Dieskau, Klemperer and Toscanini. They imprinted on the recordings and performances of those great talents. So, as a result, that era of musicians defined the pinnacle of achievement for all those listeners.

Those elders handed down their assessments to the next generation, along with their collections of recordings, and their opinions become the core of subsequent reviews .... down the line.

As a result, even now, when you ask for recommendations for recordings, the old ones continue to pop up. Are they really more talented than more contemporary artists? Are their recordings really so much better that they remain the standard against which all young artists must be judged?

I'm not so sure they were any more talented. But I am sure of one thing. They had more freedom to interpret music than today's musicians do. Listen to any 10 contemporary recordings of Dvorak's cello concerto. Then listen to Piatagorsky's. Listen to any recent recordings of Beethoven's 7th symphony, then listen to Toscanini's's or Furtwangler's. Listen to any recent recordings of Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto, then listen to his own recording or Horowitz playing it.

IMO, we do live in a new golden age of talent. The number of outstanding musicians is really amazing. But I don't hear the kind of singular interpretations and unique performances coming from them.

To me, the reason is because, in our era, the score has become some sort of sacred document. Today's artists don't have the freedom to interpret and stretch as much as they did "back in the day." If a musician deviates much from the score, s/he gets skewered by the critics and left behind by the dozens of equally talented competitors.

So, unfortunately, despite the plethora of incredibly talented artists today, those old recordings (and the musicians who made them) still stand as great recordings that still compel our attention.


"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)

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