Re: What does it mean to you?


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Posted by Richard on February 03, 2000 at 01:46:56:

In Reply to: What does it mean to you? posted by Gary Press on February 02, 2000 at 09:59:32:

I once heard John Fletcher refer to a paticularly pompous and opinionated critic as a "failed counter tenor." But there is such a thing as self indulgent conducting, although our judgements of it are a matter of taste. But we've all experienced over-interpretation to the point of bad taste. Playing too loud and laying a tuba "cheese" over an entire orchestra is self indulgent.

Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, more than any of Mahler's, is THE mine field for self-indulgent conductors, and that's putting it politely. How many of us have played Tchaik 5 performances in which the nuts and bolts of the piece's structure, and the disarming simplicity of its themes are entirely subsumed in a blather of faked orgasms. It's probably just as well they're faked.




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