What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol.VIII)

EJ, fair enough but initially we’ll keep the idea of punishment on the table and accessible but optional at this point and will work on negotiating the bribe while I try to explain my hastily written words.  Firstly, in my tunnel vision of that moment I was only trying to convey that these works of Chopin are still keyboard benchmarks, even today (just as Debussy Preludes & Etudes etc. but which came first?).  There is little fear either that any of these masterpieces will ever be displaced.  I feel the same way towards all the music I listen to (before or after Chopin).  In this instance I was trying to just highlight and convey the utter importance of Chopin’s Etudes & Preludes from that time forward.  Musically, they are just as important as Bach’s WTC or Beethoven’s Sonatas etc.  Historically, it is a fact that these works were revolutionary and really to this day still stand as a benchmark for any pianist.  By extension, it is no secret that they had the musical world standing on its head at the time and had a crucial effect.  Beethoven did the same thing when compared to Mozart or Hadyn but without those predecessors the outcome going forward would be very different.  We know that Debussy, Scriabin, Rachmaninov held Chopin’s Preludes and Etudes in reverence and clearly used them as the impetus for there own creations and for this credit it due.  We also know that Chopin did the same with Bach’s own Preludes and Fugues.  The benchmarks of the past had an effect of upping the ante for those in the future (at least during these special periods of time in the past).  I regard the compositions of Debussy etc. benchmarks as well but you cannot deny the impact Chopin had towards these individual and the various outcomes.

So you have to understand that I try not to rank one composer over another although my careless writing made this seem inevitable.  Truthfully, I regard them all as equals.  Yes, I have preferences too but I attribute this is only to my own unique personality and not that one is better than another (Chopin or Beethoven is just as important as Bach etc to me). I try to separate opinion from fact but of course this is hard when talking about emotion or things we hold important to us.  “The colour blue is the best colour” and “Bach is the greatest composer” are still both opinions, right?      

For simplicity, within the group of well-known composers, the only way I can describe my relationship with them is that I am an unapologetic and staunch polygamist (maybe this is not legal in England yet?).  I could never be satisfied in living with just one composer until death do us part.  Each of my multiple partners gives me something the others cannot and that which I need.

As for ranking performances, again, of course, I will gravitate towards my personal preferences but I don’t have stop there.  It is not always good to talk only to people that share exactly our own opinions.  I may not agree with what someone is saying but I find it interesting to find out or understand why they might feel a certain way about any subject.  Broadly though, a performance (or an interpretation) still falls into a wide net of “it’s only an opinion.”  There may have been a time in my life where I spoke in absolutes as well about these things but where opinion is concerned I see the folly in that now.  Who knows, maybe tomorrow or even ten years from now I may see it differently again.

My relationship now to music now rests solely with the intrinsic value of the music itself. The source of joy in music, for me, is connecting with the personal dialogue and secret utterances of a composer.  Playing or listening to Bach or Beethoven or Chopin etc. is like reading the very private diary of your best friend.  It is developing a relationship.  They are telling you things of a very personal nature about themselves and of their core being and I am merely the interlocutor.  The most profound conversations often happen where the listener begins to empathize with the speaker.  Listening to someone’s interpretation of a piece is merely subletting the responsibility or the direct path we each can personally have to the composer.  Otherwise, you have to accept their opinion or else do it yourself.  Everyone is free to have an opinion and I respect other peoples right to that opinion. 

Regards,

Doug

If i leave you here Bill you wont be found?

What God wants? God Gets.

God help us All.

Great album Stu. I shall have to play it now after seeing your post. But first something from Beethoven/Klemperer.

George.

I dont think i have ever posted on here about Kate Walsh.

If you want to hear Kate doing songs that framed her life in music?

Give this CD a listen.

No LOUDNESS  WARS ON THIS OR HER OTHER ALBUMS.

She does a better than brilliant job of some classics.

I just wish she would put out on vinyl??

Stu

I dont think i have ever posted on here about Kate Walsh.

Stu