BL> Beethoven is brilliant. The depth in his music is wonderful and
 BL> I was able to appreciate the music itself for the first time
 BL> without listening for flaws on the equipment...

 RM> are you certain? once a tech, always a tech...

  Well... there was very little cross-modulation and no flutter at
all.

 BL> but the QSO are a pack of butchers! They murdered it. Bloody
 BL> hell!

 RM> Perhaps you've listened to one version for too long. I have
 RM> that problem, when I hear a version on radio that differs from
 RM> my pet recording I have to deliberately block my objections,
 RM> and ask myself to keep listening. It's difficult, though: I've
 RM> yet to hear a version of Saint-Saens' Organ symphony that
 RM> records the pianos as clearly as the ~1957 version I have on
 RM> cd.

  I certainly listened to one version for too long. I wore out 6 LPs!

  I think it goes deeper than that. The first part of the Emperor has
wonderful bits where it swells up and explodes, and the QSO lost that
totally. It's the whole point of it. And in the third bit with the
piano it *has* to flow in a certain way.

  I've lost it now - I can't hear the music - but I remember thinking
it at the time... whatta wanker! This pianist has lost the plot! The
theme is very difficult, but once you've heard it played right you
know that's the way it was meant to be; the other is just a poor
imitation.

  At the same time... the *recording* of the piano was magic, compared
to the old ceramic cartridge on a cheap turntable! It was the first
time I'd heard the Emperor without wow and flutter.

  But returning to your theory, I think music itself contains the
"correct" way it should be played. For instance, they're playing
"Rising Sun" by the Animals right now. It's an old Dixieland song and
I knew it well before the Animals ever existed... but THAT's how it's
meant to be done. The Animals got it right.

  I'm not saying there is only one version of a piece. I'm saying that
music itself has a spirit and a need, and that inferior and superior
versions exist quite recognisably... no matter what you're used to.
This is why they can keep re-recording crap written 100 years ago,
isn't it? Someone does it a bit better...

Regards,
Bob

   
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