Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
Sun, May 2 2010, 9:04AM
I enjoyed this but the list does seem a little random without the context of who chose what, and why. It would have perhaps more interesting to have each musician's list instead of just the 4 actually published - thus revealing something about their personalities. This was the subject of Rob Cowan's intro essay after all.
All in all another good issue and athe revamp is a definite improvement for me.
AVL
Thu, May 6 2010, 8:34AM
#2
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
I can't see any recording dates, which makes some of the choices difficult to identity - especially when ensemble names are given incorrectly.
Fri, May 21 2010, 9:44PM
#3
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
How can there not be a recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue? Earl Wild's recording is absolutely magnificent. There is also the stunning recording with Leonard Bernstein conducting. Andre Previn's recording is also excellent. The list includes Muhly, Nancarrow, Norgard, Mantovani, Morricone, Part, Rautavaara...but no Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue! Amazing.
Wed, May 26 2010, 10:06PM
#4
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
A dusty dreadful list, of considerable knee-jerking. About 90% have no clue. It's not even close for about half of them. And in saying this, I don't have to go too far with my own preferences and biases.
Can't say I'm surprised, though. From my experiences conversing with musicians, this is pretty much a normal take on how they see the earth spinning.
Scary.
Thu, May 27 2010, 10:07PM
#5
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
Hi
As much as it was interesting to read the 250 greatest recordings, as selected by musicians, I was wondering if Gramophone as ever given any consideration to a list compiled by record retailers. Some of us have been involved in the industry for many many years and spend our entire day listening to music. We are not influenced by record label, artists or country of origin.
Just a thought.
Mel Moratti
Marbecks Classical
Auckland, New Zealand
Fri, May 28 2010, 1:10AM
#6
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
You obviously don't think much of musicians. I remember reading about Beecham opening a music bookshop. He said "There are no good books about music", the point being that you don't know anything about music until you perform it, so what is so scary?
Fri, May 28 2010, 1:36AM
#7
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
I hope you didn't hurt yourself on that leap of logic, Dick...me not liking musicians.
I've realized they're so tuned into what they're doing, that they have little time (and sometimes regard) for what others are doing...or in this case, have done. IOW, they're a selfish bunch by necessity.
Now, in every one of my generalities (hedging, if you're a musician), there are rare exceptions. If you're not scary, so be it.
Fri, May 28 2010, 8:13AM
#8
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
I enjoyed this but the list does seem a little random without the context of who chose what, and why. It would have perhaps more interesting to have each musician's list instead of just the 4 actually published - thus revealing something about their personalities. This was the subject of Rob Cowan's intro essay after all.
I'm sure you've seen this already, but I've since put a list of some of the artists' choices online.
Sat, May 29 2010, 1:51PM
#9
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
Mon, May 31 2010, 5:42PM
#10
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
Certainly a rather odd list: I seem to recall I had more in common (or more recordings in my collection) from the readers' votes of their greatest recordings of the century published around the millenium. I tried to find it (unsuccessfully) on the archive and the Acrobat/pdf reader facility seems to have disappeared from the archive.
Mon, May 31 2010, 6:38PM
#11
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
I don't know how many people who write in this forum are professional musicians, but I'm an amateur musician, and the experience of playing music is very different from listening to it for me. Watching Daniel Barenboim give a wonderful masterclass on Beethoven's Opus 109, confirmed something that I've always thought, namely that for a truly great musician the experience of playing this music is something that most of us couldn't begin to understand, however involved we are when we listen. I say this because a lot of contributors seem to be surprised that the recordings musicians chose as great don't seem to meet with general listeners consensus. I don't understand why people are surprised, I wouldn't have expected anything different. More importantly though, I don't understand why anybody cares what they or others think. If everybody thought my favourite recording was a piece of trash, it wouldn't stop me from enjoying it for one moment. All of this just highlights for me the whole pointlessness of these lists in the first place, and that music is meant to be listened to primarily, not talked about.
Mon, May 31 2010, 11:23PM
#12
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
Only westonjm was surprised.
Tue, Jun 1 2010, 3:37PM
#13
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
I say this because a lot of contributors seem to be surprised that the recordings musicians chose as great don't seem to meet with general listeners consensus. I don't understand why people are surprised, I wouldn't have expected anything different.
I'm not surprised - professional musicians are as much individuals as any one else - and perhaps "more so" as far as musical tastes go, as they will have more specific ideas about interpretation, etc, and spent more time than most developing their preferences. And they may well be looking for different things in any given piece.
Overall, I suspect it's likely their preferences will 'deviate from the mean', so any list like this is going to contain a lot of things that aren't part of 'popular' (ie, non professional musician) consensus.
More importantly though, I don't understand why anybody cares what they or others think. If everybody thought my favourite recording was a piece of trash, it wouldn't stop me from enjoying it for one moment.
Not even a tiny moment of self-doubt? Enviable :-)
All of this just highlights for me the whole pointlessness of these lists in the first place...
I do agree about lists. They are almost invariably just cheap copy* - but they seem to appeal to some innate urge that people have to rank things and/or see how other people do.
* perhaps there are some that aren't, but I can't bring one to mind.
... and that music is meant to be listened to primarily, not talked about.
Primarily, yes. But not only. Otherwise this forum is going to be something of a disappointment :-)
More seriously, some people's writing about music can be a source of great interest and illumination for others.
Tue, Jun 1 2010, 4:10PM
#14
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
Well, I don't agree about the pointlessness of lists, and deep down, I doubt if most of their poo-poo'ers do either.
Sometimes a bad list is better than no list. It might inspire. Sometimes a good list is worse than a bad list. It might not inspire and even create a sense of smugness, or know-it-all.
Lists are a fact of life--for criticism, for help, for whatever. Like it or not, lists are with us.
Sat, Oct 30 2010, 4:54PM
#15
RE: Musicians 250 Greatest Recordings
All of this just highlights for me the whole pointlessness of these lists in the first place, and that music is meant to be listened to primarily, not talked about.
The same could be said for sex.
A pretty odd list, in many ways. Columns of votes for Mahler, Mozart and Strauss. But just one work by Handel and one work by Sibelius? A bravo, however, to Hilary Hahn for choosing a disc of Heifetz's priceless 1930 recordings of Wieniawski, Saint-Saëns and Vieuxtemps.
H. Collier