Rhetorical music making is not a fad and plays its important role in everything from Monteverdi through Brahms and earlier and later.  I can imagine that any gesture can be taken too far and poise can be lost.  Proportion, expression,  all needs to be in a balance. 

As to Rifkin, a man I very much respect , Ya cant be right about everything.  

Our field suffers when the art is put in the whale bone of details.  These observations, these details of  ornament and practice offer us options to serve the music's content, its power. To deliver it in a meaningful way. The idea that one way of playing a chord is "right" or that we must choose it and only it for our interpretation is stultifying.   Couperin shows us this....Leclair says this....d'anglebert says that...  Lambert embroiders his airs with appoggiaturas that come before the beat.  St Lambert suggests this.   YES. read it all. But when making music happen, armed with knowledge, play for expression, poetry, wit, image, and find freedom in all the possible options.  Look for the spirit and soul. The content of a work.  Lets talk about that and how we go about achieving the goals.  

Thats all i am suggesting.   

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