Over and OUT.

It's hard to leave though, God knows I've tried. 

When it all gets a bit too much I just take a sabbatical, hoping that the nadir has been reached. 

And three weeks later.... I have always enjoyed reading Gary's posts. He's a great believer in source first and very knowledgeable. 

On one hand, the Forum is a pale shadow of its former self, but on the other, as I've been getting into streaming, it's been helpful beyond belief.

i cannot stand the willy waving, or the penis envy, but thankfully most contributors avoid either. It should be the love of music that drives everyone, rather than a personal axe that for some strange reason needs grinding.

And when one posts about great music and performance there is no response!

The Forum is actually F -cucked.

Hifi is the only interest and I am not interested in that ...

So it was not you that waxed lyrical about the new DAC?

Ask not what the forum can do for you. Ask instead what you can do for the forum.

Chris

Dear Chris,

Sorry that I was that forceful in expressing myself.

It was exactly how I was felling at that precise moment.

ATB from George

Was it a very large tree George?

Anyway, even though you seem to have a poor response to your postings in the Music Room, I always read them and have discovered many wonderful classical recordings as a result of your excellent recommendations. Alas, I lack the depth of knowledge to discuss the music with you but your contributions are highly valued by more than just myself.

Dear Tony,

One way and the other - going to concerts when circumstances allow, playing music of old, and amazingly returning to it earlier this year, and listening to recordings and the radio - music is actually why I can motivate myself to work!

If music was not the largest part of my life then I'd fold up on a mental health level. Sometimes I have the luck to be able to share music with friends, and it delights me to find someone discovering new music to them, which delights them and so delights me just as much to share something I know of.

For example a good friend of mine - formerly an active member of this forum - asked me to recommend some classical music right down to the recordings to get.This was quite a few months ago,and the music was the Five Beethoven Piano Concertos. As it happened I suggested to get Barenboim and Klemperer in the EMI recording, which really is persuasive!

As it happened this was a Bullseye reco! Then I was asked whether to get the Steven Bishop recording on Philips, which I heartily agreed would make a neat counterpart to the older set on EMI. Bullseye number two. As it happens I was playing over the much older [1932-35] cycle recorded by Artur Schnabel with Malcolm Sargeant for HMV in somewhat old sounding transfers from 78s one day when we were on the phone. My friend then got these, and we had Bullseye number three!

As it goes my friend now has my three favourite cycles on records of these wonderful concertos, and we never got into a relative discussion of the differences, except superficially. But we agreed that each different performance gives insight into different facets of the music and each brings greater admiration for the "!others!"

I hate this business of negative comparison. For in any case we should be looking for the positives. "Accentuate the positive ..." as the old song lyric has it!

My friend is making great progress in the classics, from Bach and Haydn, now onto Mozart and Beethoven. conservative fair in a sense, but attractive music that is also absolutely the most durable and exemplary of greatness.

What does trouble me a bit is not posting about music so much as people not replying. What I write is not an Epistle or reading of the Gospel, but simply enthusiasm,and I am never interested to put down or rubbish any view that is different to mine!

For example on the New Recordings thread, I really wish someone would say yes, and I have just got the wonderful Sibelius cycle [of Symphonies] in the live recordings with the LSO under the late lamented Sir Colin Davis. I reckon they're great!

Or some such!

To reply to myself time after time is quite strange. It is less pleasing as an activity than talking to my potted palm would be!

On the current String Quartet thread I did not reply, because opening poster ruled out exactly what I would have suggested! Usually I'll chime in with some recommendations on a thread like that one.

Anyway, I think we all get a bit grumpy when we are busy at work for a longish spell and want a bit of a holiday! Mine is at the end of August,and involves cycling, though gently for sure!

Off to Norfolk in the morning to re-home my Guinea Pig! He will have a garden at his new home, and people to look after him just as caring as me!

So early night, and a couple of days of seeing nice people! Recharges the jaded batteries!

ATB from George

It's probably about time I tip-toed away from this forum.

It is not really helpful to share my criticisms save to say that it is not going in the direction I would have wished - I know I am perhaps old-fashioned in my expectations.

So bye for now

Don, sunny downtown York

Dear Don [uk],

I am going to go against fashion, and stay. In my view the Forum is what we make it. Of course it is entirely possibly that inane posts will outnumber sensible ones, but as in democracy, the sane voice has a responsibility to state the sane case, and with luck will be appreciated.

Not everyone has the courage to post at all, and it seems to me that to post rubbish is quite likely from many.

The inane view is accepted in a democracy and executed in a in dictatorship. Except that in a dictatorship the accepted view is generally - indeed almost always - inane.

So the easy thing is to leave. I used to see the value in leaving. It is easy and saves a lot of trouble.

Even our favourite Father figure, Mick Parry, has seemed to leave ...

I think that if the saner people continue, then the Forum may even eventually regain its sanity, though I agree that it is hardly in the best of health just now.

ATB from George

As someone who contributes only occasionally and when passionate i too have faced some strange comments. Often I feel very ignorant in many discussions especially those on the hifi bits! I read them tho! I will miss both Gary and Don just as I missed George when he was on vacation. George is right of course, we are what we make of these fora and people leaving leaves us the poorer. Many comments are, I am sure, made too quickly but I like to believe and will continue to believe are made without malice aforethought. I don't need to agree with someones opinion for it to be valid at least to them. Surely that is what discussion is for? Written discussion is probably just a little more insensitive than the discussion over a pint or the dinner table. Inflection and tone get lost easily.

May we all go forward gently and with peace. Maybe in the future curiosity will bring our friends back.

james

No need to be sorry, arguably it's exactly what the forum needs.

And anyway it gave me a chance to adapt JFK. And in similar vein, I also like Burke's 'All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand idle'. A tad lofty no doubt but there or thereabouts in spirit.

Chris