Re: Re: Re: Re: Vaughan-Williams Concerto with Jacobs


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Posted by whatever ...(Joe?) on January 21, 2003 at 15:38:17:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Vaughan-Williams Concerto with Jacobs posted by Frank Lee on January 21, 2003 at 14:40:02:

NOT one to personalize MY opinions ;^}
I am still wondering where you really expect all this criticism to go/getcha/accomplish?

It's generally understood that technical facility of the average player today is FAR greater than say 40+ years ago. It may well be as well that todays "good amateur" at their best is technically equal to Mr Jacobs putzing around 40 years ago. That said, I'd still be quite happy with the Jacobs V-W as my ONLY reference recording of the piece. Even if I never knew that it was a one-take recording done when neither the orchestra nor the soloist knew it was being recorded!

This whole criticism thread is painfully similar to many we've had in the past, for some reason I think of jukeboxes and the (by otherwise well-meaning people like you) efforts to put a jukebox in every club in the 40's. They were cheaper, more accurate, and more predictable. Lotta musicians went broke as a result of that. CD recordings might be a more recent example. Lotta takes go into producing one. Is it technically spot-on?...Perhaps its more likely to be than a live recording, but if you'd prefer to sit home with a can of Billy Beer and listen to that recording, be our guest. Just don't at the same time belly-ache about the deplorable conditions in our culture that allow music programs to founder (YOUR bread and butter, yes?) while you venerate a fake recording that effectively gives you the convenience to be dis-engaged from live performance as a listener/patron. I know, you work hard for your rice bowl and probably are thinking "b.f.d." about all of this, But why should your opinion be more important than mine, or Fred Youngs, or Jay B.'s or anyone elses? Making this an issue about perfectionism in performance is NOT being true to the original question.
It is puffed up and stupid. Shut up!


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