Another possibility- performers, (like their listeners) are human; therefore fallible- they are not going to bat everything out of the park every time up to bat- and listeners are also human (therefore fallible) and will have different subjective responses. For that matter, the recording process can make or break a recording.
I find this to be true all the time, listening to CDs all day long at my job. One pianist does all the Schubert sonatas exquisitely- except for the last one! I have to go to some one else for the 560 in B flat. One of the finest Baroque violinists in the world blows the Bach partitas- but maybe just for me. I never understood the Bartok string quartets until I heard the Vegh Quartet's recording- but that may be my fault, not that of the other fine interpreters of these difficult works. Surely there must be other recordings of the Tombeau- sometimes a range of "viewpoints" is necessary- especially if one standard has locked itself into your brain after thirty years. Do you play? Digging into it yourself, whatever your playing level, will give you a ton of information about the work. Generally, I too find Barto's playing to be full of passion and verve- but I haven't heard him on that particular piece. I am still waiting for a CD copy of Hoppy doing it on the Widhalm, and will be very interested after reading your post (welcome back, incidentally) to hear this work. Dan >30 years of listening! Hah! I certainly would like to. But >implicitely my point was that too many lute recordings are on the >brink of being too bland for my humble taste. Now even Robert Barto >falls prey to this. This I did not expect. >g > > >On 10.02.2010, at 00:12, howard posner wrote: > >> On Feb 9, 2010, at 2:47 PM, Gernot Hilger wrote: >> >>> My reference interpretation, a beloved compagnion for more than >>> thirty years is Hoppy's 1978 rendition on the 1755 Widhalm lute, >>> Reflexe edition, not the later recording on his van Lennep lute. I >>> find this particular piece overflowing with emotion, ardently >>> played, very moving. It just hits and touches me. The music is so >>> deep and calm and nevertheless arousing. What a masterpiece. And an >>> example of what can be done on the lute. >>> >>> Upon further reflection, I find that Robert does in fact express >>> himself, but only on a smaller scale. More civilised, perhaps. >>> Which I find a pity. >>> >>> Why is it that the emotional range of many lute recordings is so >>> small? Or compressed? It can be done otherwise. Or is it just a >>> matter of my ears being clogged? >> >> They may very well be clogged. If you've been married to one >> performance for 30 years, it's only natural to think of it as THE >> performance, and think of every other performance as if it were an >> attempt to duplicate it; therefore any other performance can hardly >> differ from it without being inferior. We all tend to judge music- >> making by some model we've internalized, and recordings are very >> powerful internalizers. >> >> You may be right about emotional scale, but I think you should be >> scientific about this: put away the Smith Reflexe recording, spend 30 >> years listening to Barto's, and then get back to us. >> -- >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Rachel Winheld 820 Colusa Avenue Berkeley, CA 94707 rwinh...@comcast.net Tel 510.526.0242 Cell 510.915.4276
