Barenboim's 1970s CBS Elgar

Seconded... with exceptions. Mendelssohn 'Lieder Ohne Worte' being most prominant in my mind right now.

Agree with Parla's last para. I heard Barenboim at the QE Hall for one of his first Beethoven sonata series and at the first Harrogate Festival playing and conducting with the ECO and was impressed. I haven't heard the CBS Elgar recordings (and CBS often produced rather crude sounding recordings at that time) but still regularly play a Mozart concerto or Beethoven sonatas from the early EMI cycles although I don't have any of his recent recordings.

Barenboim is a man who makes too many 'musical' decisions for 'political' reasons. Let's build a new Orchestra, not because we want to great sound but because we want half Jew and half Arab. Let's play the Beethoven sonatas, but not because the music speaks to me, no Barenboim wants to speak through the music. What could we tell the word about Beethoven, well he was a 'hep cat' who liked a bit of humour, he could often be seen in jazz bars wearing a roll neck jumper under his suit while he spoke about political freedom. That's how Beethoven should sound right, now let's find the evidence in his music. What a bore.

Well New Zealand never really signed on did it, still we will miss the sheep and the grass, oh and the butter.

Basta, Oscar, basta! You cannot blame anyone for his/her preferences about performances and performers. As you claim "for me" this conductor is better than someone else, or a soloist than another one, Brahmslikedcoffee has all the liberty and right to say that "for him" Barenboim, at least on certain works, is a great conductor and he prefers him against others.

As for me, I had the chance to see Barenboim quite a few times, when I was in Berlin, and he was very convincing and even thrilling in a variety of programs. Particularly in Opera, he has been extremely successful in Wagner productions. As for his recordings, I have a great admiration (while they are not my first choice necessarily) for his Beethoven, Bruckner and Wagner at least, based on how I perceive and comprehend the works of these composers.

Parla

Guillaume, you can do better than that. You keep isolating parts of my posts and, then, you interpret them as you deem it necessary.

To start with: If you had read with consistency my posts, you should have noticed that I have made the distinction about the objective character of the works of Classical Music, where "taste" cannot identify and much more define whether a work is great, and the subjective nature of a performance.

In my most recent posts, including the one above, I mentioned that some of us may "prefer" Barenboim on the basis of how we perceive the work he performs. I have defended on the same basis Bernstein at the thread on Sibelius' Symphonies, debating with Sid Nuff.

Since there are different perceptions even among musicians on how to tackle a Classical work, there cannot be a definitive performance. Still, it is not that much a matter of "taste", but of a more general approach to the works in question and how each performance of these works fit in.

So, Guillaume, if you wish to deal with every line or at least every post I write, read me more carefully. I never defended the objective greatness of a performer; only of composers and specific works.

Parla