Live or Recorded; A Faustian response


I just responded to a Faustian question about
whether I had a choice between music or my stereo system. How about the choice between live concerts or recorded
music??? If I had more time in my hectic life:
live concerts( I just heard a wonderful Brahms' Sextet by a local sting ensemble) but.....
shubertmaniac

Showing 4 responses by pls1

Monday night we were front and center when Vienna Philharmonic performed the Bruckner 8th conducted by Bernard Haitink. NO recording and NO system can even come close to reproducing the power, tone, detail and subtlety of that experience. The VPO owns this piece. The Furtwangler, von Karajan and even Boulez recordings with the VPO are better interpretations. I can listen to them anytime. Without them I would not have enjoyed Monday’s performance as much because I have been able to hear this magnificent work of music live only five times in 35 years of concert going. That said, it is the regular experience of live music that is the impetus for owning a high end system. Without that unattainable benchmark I would still be a mid fi system.
The best term to describe it was masterful. It was one of those very select performances where the conductor was in complete service to the music and did not seem to impose an interpretation, but rather lead an orchestra of virtuosos that CARED about the music. The tempi tended toward the slow side but it never dragged. The adagio was (as it should be) the centerpiece of the interpretation and it was shattering. The first movement did not emphasize the tragic to the extent of the Furtwangler and Karajan and I would have preferred that the articulation of the scherzo had been sharper but these are quibbles.

The sound of the VPO is so right for Bruckner it was glorious to hear them play such a truly great piece of music from up front.
Sorry I don't agree. I've gone to a live musical event once or twice a week for thirty plus years. There are good, bad and great performances. There are many live performances of music that I could go to but don't like the music so I don't go. There are many musicians who are enjoying themselves and having a great time on stage and are not worth listening to. I've been to concerts where the musicians are playing great music on auto pilot -- this just makes me hopping mad so I stay away from these groups and listen to recordings.

These opinions apply to recorded music as well.

The authentic experience happens between the ears in wetware of the perceiver whose perceptual capabilities have been molded by billions of years of evolution. The listener’s actual experience is both culturally and personally determined but so what. It is the height of intellectual arrogance to refer to another person’s life or experience as inauthentic but it doesn’t hurt to point them to great music.

My answer to the purpose of being is for me to have a great time and listen to as much good music as I can. Life is too short to listen to bad music
To Rcprince. I certainly accept that there are personal and in that sense extra-musical reasons for listening to a performance. The reference to Heidegger that Schubertmaniac casually tosses about has very specific ontological, epistemic and metaphysical claims about life and art. I spent the better part of a semester in the dim mists of Herr Heidegger's writings. My response is my considered response to claims which I find specious. I also believe that they are germane to this hobby.