The Government’s “Levelling up”, if it works is probably a good thing. But what about “Levelling up” musically?
Back in my youth (a long time ago) I could listen to a Beethoven symphony and, despite being in no way an expert, I could generally differentiate between a performance by, say, Klemperer, Karajan or Kleiber. I could sometimes identify the orchestra (Czech Philharmonic, Berlin Phil etc) I also remember some, let us say, not very good orchestras and I have no doubt at all that the general standard of orchestral playing has progressed significantly. This is surely good, but they have become faceless and have a uniform sound.
Nowadays with Beethoven sets coming thing and fast from every likely and unlikely source this it seems impossible to differentiate let alone identify orchestras and conductors. European orchestras sound like American ones and I heard a Korean orchestra a few days ago that was excellent but anonymous and “international”.
The modern breed of jet-setting maestro rarely has his or her “own” orchestra, even so called principal conductors rarely conduct more than half of a season’s concerts. I attend quite a few concerts and almost never hear a conductor who is not fully competent – technically. Unfortunately, in many cases their musical thought seems lagging behind their ability. I could name only a dozen or so conductors who seem to have actually thought behind the notes and come up with a real interpretation, quite a few “famous names” would not be included.
Is the blame for this with record companies? Are they desperate for Maestro X and Maestro Y to have as much exposure as possible, usually accompanied by hyperbolic marketing.
Is this good due to the hight standard of playing and conducting or a bad thing due o a loss of individuality?
Apologies to Ludwin van, just an obvious example! I will stop rambling now.
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