Classical Court

From Perotin to Prokofiev (and beyond), performed by Caruso to Khatia, it's all here.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

Yes - I've been saying that for years myself!

Posted by Chris from Lafayette on April 28, 2022 at 11:48:31:
The BPO definitely lost their "sound" under Abbado and Rattle, although it's probably a world-wide phenomenon that orchestras are losing their individuality in terms of a special "sound". You're probably right about Dresden (SkD) retaining more individuality than other orchestras, but even they are not as readily identifiable anymore. I'd guess that the reason is because the auditions for all the big orchestras these days are open to anyone, the world over. I remember reading an interview with Kurt Masur, wherein he stated that the reason the Dresden and Leipzig orchestras had their own special, respective "sounds" was because those orchestras used to be "fed" almost exclusively by players from the local conservatories in those cities (with the string players having been trained in a certain way, etc.), and this "parochial" methodology of hiring new players resulted in a consistency of sound (a very identifiable sound!) which has been broken by the "open door" policies of the modern world. I understand how it's good to want fairness in the process of hiring new players in a given orchestra, but, like you, I still regret the loss of a special, identifiable sound which we used to get with certain orchestras. Well, maybe I don't regret it so much with French orchestras! But even in French repertoire, I enjoy recordings like the Cluytens Ravel set! ;-)