On Oct 9, 2006, at 5:47 AM, ariel abramovich wrote: > > Edin is an specialized lutenist (one of the best around, I should > add), ... > Ariel: I wish Edin, the CD and any spill off into the lute community at large great financial and artistic success. But I have to say that your comment really gets under my skin. Do you mean that Edin is tops at his published specialty (Bach and Britten on an archlute)? Then I would completely agree. Do you honestly believe however that he is one of the best professional lutenists around or at least a top Dowland interpreter? If so, do you have any criteria other than friendship?
Art is art and artists shouldn't be ranked like world tennis players. Nevertheless I don't think it is too unreasonable to at least think in terms of broad bands of technical and artistic ability. No need to quibble about specifics, but there is definitely an "A" list that includes people like POD, McFarlane, Hoppy, Satoh, Lindberg, Barto, Stubbs and North. There is another top group who aren't quite as well known or broadly recorded but whose recordings really impress me, like Wilson, Eguez, Held, and Lislevand. There are others whom I have heard in person and on the occasional recording that also play at a very high level like Richard Stone, Andrew Maginley, David Dolata, Scott Pauley, Lucas Harris, amongst others. Of course everyone on the lutelist will have a different personal preference list, and I know that Roman can produce a list of people whose names I have never heard of and whose names would yield extremely high Scrabble scores whom I have never heard play but I am sure are very talented. Nevertheless, do you believe that based on his 2 recordings, Edin's technical and artistic levels exceed those of the arbitrary and highly personal list I just came up with? DS To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
