Greypins@a... wrote: Greypins@a... wrote: >
> > one cannot take 'sublime' as a given either.
Not my word. But it's an adjective I've seen in more than one review of her singing, by different people. Isabelle's comment that her views on Kirkby's singing should be taken "as a given" imply that they are axiomatic like 2+2=4; in other words, something that goes without saying for all of us.
>you yourself made the > distinction between ms. kirkby and cheryl studer. prefering one over the > other is probably more common than liking both. what is 'sublime' to one > might well be 'horrible' to another. > and i'm sure there are singers who sang duets with ms. studer in college who > might be offended by your comments on her (i don't criticize your loyalty).
Huh? What comments on her? All I did was to ask whether Isabelle would prefer a singer of Cheryl Studer's undoubted talent in her chosen field, in early Baroque lute and viol ensembles. I'm not sure I'd choose Kirkby to play Violetta, for that matter. According to you, that is equally offensive. >
> when i was in high school (early 70s), a bunch of us were discussing the > harnoncourt recordings of bach cantatas. my friend ray was saying how > horrible they were. a teacher of ours countered by saying "of all the > recordings currently available, these recordings are closest to bach's > intent." ray responded "oh! i guess i don't like bach as much as i thought > i did." > Quite. It's a matter of taste as much as anything else. Sometimes acquired taste. If you hear the sound of the fortepiano, after hearing music that was originally composed for it being played on a concert grand all your life, you are bound to find the sound thin and disappointing at first. Then it's your choice whether to persevere with appreciating the sound that the composer would have heard, or you can say "I like the grand piano, therefore I prefer this music played on the grand piano even though it wasn't originally meant for it - it's an improvement on the original". Or you can appreciate both, just as you can appreciate the gigantic mural and the Mona Lisa. You can appreciate both for their own merits and not set the one above the other.
And if your taste is for Purcell sung by someone who is more at home with Wagner, to use an extreme hypothesis, then you go listen to them. What you don't do is dismiss whole areas of scholarship and tradition as worthless and tell everyone that it's a "given" (which is getting to sound like a more and more clumsy expression every time I type it; it was ok the first time when Isabelle used it - what is the word or expression I'm groping for here, someone?)
cheers
Linda
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