>On Sat, 21 Nov 1998, Igor Kipnis wrote:
>>
>>My most sincere regrets for yet another indication of what has been
>>happening throughout the entire classical music media area.
 
and Joe Spencer :
>My thanks to Igor and others who have responded. Igor's point about public
>outcry is straight to the point, and I thought that some such would
>materialize long before now. ...
>I refuse to believe that classical music is dying, or dead, ...But it is
>very clear that we are in the grip
>of a major cultural adjustment, a vast change that is far from over.
 
        What do you suggest be done? What can each of use do beyond by
records. The records we buy, let alone the numbers, will make no impression
at all. We've discussed this here before. Given the state of commercial
classical music, who can blame the "general public" for their disinterest?
I'm not interested, either, inspite of  professional interset and passion
for music.  Sure, some , many recording are very good, even superb. We
exchange notes on this all the time and some people like Jay must have a
seperate house for their setup and records.We don't consitute a market.
When I look at the Austro-German scene, I see state subsidized
"civil-servant" orchestras with employees that cannot be discharged arguing
about their special sound and whether a woman can be allowed to play with
them (also refusing to employ bassists who dare to play with a French bow).
These being run by some "civil servant with an obscure phd  spending
obscene amounts on charlatans like Muti as conductors who strut around
like roosters. You cannot seriously expect even a willing audience to take
this seriously, can you? When the quality is mediocre as well... This is
only the live scene, supported by our tax money and the few wealthy who buy
a subscription but don't regularily go -  or only when they can expect to
be seen there.
        Where every tom, dick, and harry must have a complete this,
complete that on the market every month, none of it worth listening to, it
is no wonder that interest dwindles. The only one doing any meaningful work
at all are the hip groups doing romantic music like Gardiner's recordings
of Berlioz or Herreweghe's  Faure Requiem.
Around here, such amounts to subversive terrorism fo the press and the
establishment, still trying to keep the fin du siecle retort conditions of
Mahler and Werfel alive, not realizing that they were dead to begin with.
 
regards, Bill
 
William Jurgenson
Keyboard Instrument Maker