[78-L] Hello and a question

[Chris Zwarg]

>Most rock records were one continuous take or at the most made up of one
>half of one take and the other half of another take.  They might need to
>do 10 or 15 takes, but the edits of pop records were minimal.  On the
>other hand, classical recordings had oodles of edits back during that
>same era, and it is even worse now.  Even concert recordings are
>"sweetened" afterwards.  Are classical performers that bad?????
>
>Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  

The bigger part of the problem IMHO is that, probably starting with Toscanini but much worse since Karajan's heyday, a studio recording of classical music is seen not so much as an account of a particular performance, but as a (always aspiring to THE) definitive reading of the score. While rock and pop musicians, mostly performing their own material, have a lot of leeway regaring phrasing and interpretation - which earlier classical performers also took for granted BTW - ruthless (and too often soulless) perfectionism at some point took over the classical field. If you compare, say, the 1920's Berlin Philharmonic with today's, you'll hear how much the intonation and dexterity of individual musicians, as well as perfectly synchronous ensemble, has improved; but you'll probably also notice that a high price was paid to achieve this, namely the conspicuous lack of personality and individuality. There are hardly any more instantly recognizable classical performers today, neither among voices nor instrumentalists. I would agree that the standard is high, but it is just that - *standardized* - while the "legends" of recording history usually had NON-standard, i.e. EXCEPTIONAL and utterly individual, qualities - be it Caruso, Kreisler, or Melba, right down to Mme. Foster-Jenkins at the other end of the scale. What they all had in common is that you would recognize them after hearing no more than two or three notes, a quality sadly lacking in too many LP-era classical recordings that seem to be little more than correct readings of the score, musical audiobooks rather than fully-staged drama so-to-speak...

Chris Zwarg