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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Number of Edits in modern Classical Recordings - Part Deux posted by Chris from Lafayette on November 22, 2010 at 15:08:43:
Two things. The first and most basic is that you cannot create something good simply by removing everything that's bad. A great performance is organic, created from the ground up, not the top down. It's a balancing act. You obviously cannot have something jarringly out of whack in a recording, but to try and fix every last slightly out of tune note or poor attack is to kill the spirit of the performance. If someone's only criterium for judging a performance is by how many wrong notes there were, then they have a bit to learn about what makes great music. It reminds me of the old joke about someone asking a sculptor how to make a statue of an elephant. He replies "it's quite easy. You just get a big block of stone, then take a hammer and a chisel and knock off everything that doesn't look like an elephant!".
The more insidious problem is that editing practices have given listeners a preposterous expectation of perfection. This in turn has trickled down to orchestral playing, especially in the process of auditioning to get the jobs. It's now play all the notes at all costs. This climate has created a careful, don't take any chances kind of performance practice that leads to whitewashed, cookie-cutter performances. I asked an orchestral musician friend of mine what it was that he liked so much about European orchestras' performances from years ago. He replied "it's that they seemed to play as if they thought that they were going to die in their sleep that night!"
There's much, much more to it, of course, and I don't mean to oversimplify things. The most notable problem is the lack of rehearsal time. Orchestral musicians work as hard as ever, it's just that a much higher percentage of an orchestra's services are performances than in years past. Obviously, they need to make as much money as possible to stay afloat. Even a poorly attended concert costs the orchestra less than a rehearsal. I generally avoid the first performance of the week, as often it really should have been the last rehearsal.
I am a musician, and I have been involved with the recording process as a player, conductor and on the production side. We had all of these same conversations when I was in music school 35 years ago, but I think we've gotten much farther down the road with the problems. I don't know how this got so long-winded (or why the Hell I'm not asleep!). Sorry to go on, it got me thinking. There is a lot of great music and great orchestral performances. It just could be better yet. Good Night!
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Follow Ups
- OK, I have to weigh in - vinyl phanatic 23:33:45 11/23/10 (4)
- Sounds as if we're about the same age - Chris from Lafayette 09:24:12 11/24/10 (0)
- Well said: - jult52 08:23:23 11/24/10 (1)
- Ditto - mwhitmore 07:14:59 11/25/10 (0)
- IMHO, exactly right and very well put on all points. - rbolaw 06:44:21 11/24/10 (0)
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