Klarinet Archive - Posting 000821.txt from 2003/05

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Gran Partitta recording
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 09:30:15 -0400

I never said that I did not like Furtwangler's recording and I am not
critical of anyone who does like it. The issue I was trying to get
clarified was your (then) incomplete and tantalizing statement about
text. But when you say, "My point is that there is more to a performance
than just the correct text, however important that is. The insights that
a really great musician will bring to a piece are a greater benefit than
the wrong notes is a loss. So, net (as it were), Furtwangler, for me,
will knock into touch most modern recordings."

I would suggest that unless one is going to play what Mozart wrote (and
Furtwangler's performance does not, though that certainly was not his
fault), the problems of getting a great performance become very
profound, since one is not performing the correct music. I just don't
understand how one can get around this problem. To do so requires a
suspension of disbelief and the assertion that a performance of music is
some magical element that doesn't have to pay attention to what the
composer wrote; i.e., somehow and in some unclear way, it will all come
out beautifully if you just feel it right. I mean no personal attack,
but that is simply the divination of the performer (or conductor) over
the composer's notes.

How far does one have to deviate from the composer's text to be at a
place where one is beyond the pale? I suppose that is each person's
choice, but in my view, Furtwangler (thought no fault of his own, I
repleat) is so far over the line, that his performance, no matter how
beautiful, does not represent what Mozart wrote. It's some other piece,
and nicely played, too.

There are close to 1000 differences just in the placement and intensity
of the dynamics in what Furtwangler conducted as contrasted with what
the composer wrote. Are you seriously telling me that this doesn't
matter because Furtwanlger had some pipeline to the infinite?

--
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**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
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