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Re: GG...and that harpsichord
At 01:58 PM 7/9/2000 -0500, John Hill wrote:
Kate, one of the great things about music and aesthetics
is that, at the end of the day, you get to enjoy whatever the **** you want
and proclaim it to be the best thing ever. (...)
Bradley, for example, is still a list member here! When he carries on about
GG's approach to the hrschd. or some really *wacko* interpretive thing
that GG did, he is arguing from a very informed position. But that *doesn't*
mean that he is trying to instruct you on how *you* should feel when listening
to the same piece. [as an aside, Bradley and I are pretty diametrically
opposite in our feelings about early GG vs. late GG. I just know I'm
right about this,
but....]
Exactly. The important thing is, when the box of Javachip comes out of the
freezer and hits the bowls, it doesn't matter how "wrong" GG's X or Y or
Zed is. If we get enjoyment out of listening to it, for whatever reason,
it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks of it.
Most of us who have known GG's work for some time would admit that what
initially drew us to those recordings was something very different from what
sustains our interest now.
Yep.
Another example would be GG arguing strenuously with Bruno M. about middle-
period Beethoven or trying to convince Yehudi M. about why Schoenberg's
music was truly great. It could have easily descended into a SNL parody of
the old CBS Point-Counterpoint debate. (GG: "Yehudi, you ignorant **** !!)
To which Yehudi could have replied with a Chevy Chase grin, "Hello, I'm
Yehudi Menuhin and you're not." And then there would be a Teddy Slutz
cameo, culminating in: "It's always somethin'."
Bradley Lehman
Dayton VA
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl