I think there is a spacial communication you get hearing the music live that will never be there on the CD. It includes the ability to watch the performer's body language and their opportunity to feel the communication coming back from the audience. This is the reason many musicians love making live recordings.
But, I think the biggest difference is that in the case of Hoppy and Dowland (and many other performers) the concert you hear is done months and years after that CD was recorded and you are indeed hearing a different performance. The more a master plays the music, the better it gets. Nancy Carlin >What is the input of Hoppy and Nigel North on their recordings? One >would hope they are interested, and that they want to control the >sound as much as they can. Of course you can't control the volume at >the listener's end, and that is one of the key elements in getting >the focus of the sound right; but you are right to take it as far as >you can. > >However, Hoppy, now seems to be searching more for a sort of >universal musicality (and there is no denying he is musical), which >seems to allow him to ignore strings, acoustics, and even possibly, >the quality of his lute; almost as though these no longer matter at >the particular stage of research he has reached. It was not always so. > >I was looking this morning, at his De Rippe recording of 1977. He >states clearly, in his own signed notes, that the musical language of >a period seems to come to life best when you use the specific means >available at the time, and thus gut stringing is an essential >element, in this, in spite of the problems for the interpret. I >translate a little wildly from the French. > >Now some may not like that record (I do, but it was one of the first >gut-strung lute recordings I bought), and perhaps Hoppy has matured >beyond this sort of preoccupation. He has every right to determine >his priorities, as the sensitive musician he undoubtedly is. >Perhaps like a number of musicians before him, he considers only the >performance counts (you must be there to hear him, too bad if you are >not), and so the recording might be of little, or no import to him. >Indeed, the Dowland recording, without his presence, seems but a pale >shadow of what I thought I had heard in concert. > >This may be good. We should not just listen to recordings; and I do >not mean to say he does not care, or is self indulgent, in some way. >On the contrary, he has almost a quiet "religious" humbleness before >the music he is playing, and this is truly extraordinary to watch and >hear, but after a month or so, I could not find the same quality >coming through the recording. I know you never can find the true >presence of a performance on record (especially one that is not >recorded live), and perhaps the more a musician's presence is clearly >felt in the auditorium, the greater the disappointment, at his >absence, when one simply listens to his records. > >Sorry, I have strayed a little, >Best regards >Anthony > > > > > > > > David - thanks for the input, it's needed to push me along and to > > make me reflect on my own recordings, after all, I have just one > > set of ears. > > > > > > **************************** > > David van Ooijen > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > www.davidvanooijen.nl > > **************************** > > > > > > > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Nancy Carlin Associates P.O. Box 6499 Concord, CA 94524 USA phone 925/686-5800 fax 925/680-2582 web site - www.nancycarlinassociates.com Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA web site - http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org --
