This is far from what most of us usually expect to find in this channel, David, and still this is one of The Best videos you posted (so far). I hope we have more contents like this coming :) Congrats!
This reminds me of that adage that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. A perfectly adequate, but otherwise completely toothless recording is literally unremarkable in that there’s almost nothing to say about it. I could even see it being the case that a listener might gain more experientially and educationally from listening to remarkably bad recordings than unremarkably adequate ones.
Isn’t that the truth, Connor! Indifference, be it from repetition and boredom - that the musician is just mimicing others without any perceptible personal involvment in the music - Or indifference on the lack of merritt of the performance in technical terms (rarer, but indeed it happens from time to time). I must admitt that some of the most entertaining performances has been when I hate the concert or the recording - I can be fascinated by concerts I hate - A musician who is so far off in his view of a piece from what one expect might even grow on you over time. I find joy in such «elasticity» - everything is not engraved in stone, and that is why many of us keep listening.
On the other hand - and to be fair - we experience just as much glee and joy when discussing a fantastic new recording which displays remarkable talent and musicality, and is a pleasure to listen to.
Your point is well made. I think that most of us find some satisfaction in the opportunity to redress the balance of the big noise made in the classical media glorifying figures like Lang Lang, for which you provided a forum.
My theory is that Lang Lang's technical mastery is such that to keep from becoming bored, he's becoming confident in creating conceptions that go counter with the emotional impact expected.
Dave, off-topic subject: have you ever talked on the channel about your professional journey? How did you end up taking on a second profession? (Which, I imagine, pays most of the bills!) How did a historian and classical music critic end up in the real estate sector? Would it be possible to pay the bills with music criticism? I believe your audience is as curious as I am! Thanks!
It’s extra fun to pile up on Lang Lang and DG because of all their PR. All the asinine instagram ads for the album with Lang Lang effusively praising his collaborators. All the anniversary videos DG has made about what a great storied label they are. If this was a small indie label, nobody would care so much. But these people build themselves up to be a Four Seasons and then sell us a Big Mac.
Ah yes, fun in criticism! As someone once pointed out, genuinely brilliant critics have a field of wit with bad reviews, far less with good. How many ways can one say I love you? Many creative ways to express hate! The actual reasoning is not really important to the fun of watching the evisceration. Best sellers like "Whatever it is I'm Against It" or Diana Rigg's wonderful "No Turn Unstoned" are evidence of that too. John Simon, for example, could be/was in many ways an odiously brilliant man who drew great hate, but we sure waited to read his next critical destruction. Actor friends were actually proud he noticed them enough to attack them! I wonder if any that you have 'Hurwitzed' may feel the same and laugh along with us? Will Lang Lang and his more balanced fanatics think it all in fun, or that you have blasphemed attacking their god? Such is the profession, as you point out...
In part I agree 100%, in another part I don't quite agree. It is not about me feeling like the record companies are telling me to humble before the music. BUT, what I do get 100% is that if I listen to only great works I do sometimes wonder if I really understand the music. If everything is great maybe I don't really understand or can make judgments. When I listen to a work that even I can see as bad it makes me happy. Yes, I do know at least enough to identify a truly bad work.
Some days it is sunny, some days it rains, if it was sunny all of the time we would get bored. If the music was great all of the time, we would get bored.
I apologise for my own pile-on; in my defence I didn't like LL's recordings from the off, while Classic FM were lauding him as the greatest ever; for me, he deserved his moniker of Bang Bang. And that's fine. Other people enjoyed his playing, I still have my own personal favourites to enjoy - and in fairness to Mr LL I've heard him play a lot better too, once he toned down the rather aggressive touch. For what it's worth, I'm a really s*** pianist, and that's also fine, because I'm not in the market for recording and making money thereof - and therein lies the rub, for me - that the music biz is in the hands of money-making promoters who don't really care whether something is good, bad or indifferent, so long as it sells. I'm glad I commented though, as I would probably not have found the excellent Cortot recordings recommended to me by another commenter. I'm all for "being kind" but that shouldn't get in the way of calling out something for what it quite frankly is. Have a great day :)
You don't get better unless you make mistakes. Ah, and there's the rub. Lang Lang is really a performer. And in this day and age, mass media props up artists across the spectrum. Take Liberace. Was he talented, yes. But could you see him playing the Rach 3 back in the day. Probably not.
Listening to this talk, I was reminded of one of my favorite put-downs: "This person has delusions of adequacy!"
This is far from what most of us usually expect to find in this channel, David, and still this is one of The Best videos you posted (so far). I hope we have more contents like this coming :) Congrats!
This reminds me of that adage that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. A perfectly adequate, but otherwise completely toothless recording is literally unremarkable in that there’s almost nothing to say about it. I could even see it being the case that a listener might gain more experientially and educationally from listening to remarkably bad recordings than unremarkably adequate ones.
Isn’t that the truth, Connor! Indifference, be it from repetition and boredom - that the musician is just mimicing others without any perceptible personal involvment in the music - Or indifference on the lack of merritt of the performance in technical terms (rarer, but indeed it happens from time to time). I must admitt that some of the most entertaining performances has been when I hate the concert or the recording - I can be fascinated by concerts I hate - A musician who is so far off in his view of a piece from what one expect might even grow on you over time. I find joy in such «elasticity» - everything is not engraved in stone, and that is why many of us keep listening.
On the other hand - and to be fair - we experience just as much glee and joy when discussing a fantastic new recording which displays remarkable talent and musicality, and is a pleasure to listen to.
Very true.
Your point is well made. I think that most of us find some satisfaction in the opportunity to redress the balance of the big noise made in the classical media glorifying figures like Lang Lang, for which you provided a forum.
My theory is that Lang Lang's technical mastery is such that to keep from becoming bored, he's becoming confident in creating conceptions that go counter with the emotional impact expected.
Dave, off-topic subject: have you ever talked on the channel about your professional journey? How did you end up taking on a second profession? (Which, I imagine, pays most of the bills!) How did a historian and classical music critic end up in the real estate sector? Would it be possible to pay the bills with music criticism? I believe your audience is as curious as I am! Thanks!
I have not, but I hesitate to get into it. It's just too, well, not about music.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I’d love to watch that video. Stories about musical lives are no less exciting than watching you tear DG a new one.
It’s extra fun to pile up on Lang Lang and DG because of all their PR. All the asinine instagram ads for the album with Lang Lang effusively praising his collaborators. All the anniversary videos DG has made about what a great storied label they are. If this was a small indie label, nobody would care so much. But these people build themselves up to be a Four Seasons and then sell us a Big Mac.
Ah yes, fun in criticism! As someone once pointed out, genuinely brilliant critics have a field of wit with bad reviews, far less with good. How many ways can one say I love you? Many creative ways to express hate! The actual reasoning is not really important to the fun of watching the evisceration. Best sellers like "Whatever it is I'm Against It" or Diana Rigg's wonderful "No Turn Unstoned" are evidence of that too. John Simon, for example, could be/was in many ways an odiously brilliant man who drew great hate, but we sure waited to read his next critical destruction. Actor friends were actually proud he noticed them enough to attack them!
I wonder if any that you have 'Hurwitzed' may feel the same and laugh along with us? Will Lang Lang and his more balanced fanatics think it all in fun, or that you have blasphemed attacking their god? Such is the profession, as you point out...
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
This kind of pleasure is sometimes called 'surplus enjoyment '. Fun in all sorts of guises!
In part I agree 100%, in another part I don't quite agree. It is not about me feeling like the record companies are telling me to humble before the music. BUT, what I do get 100% is that if I listen to only great works I do sometimes wonder if I really understand the music. If everything is great maybe I don't really understand or can make judgments. When I listen to a work that even I can see as bad it makes me happy. Yes, I do know at least enough to identify a truly bad work.
Some days it is sunny, some days it rains, if it was sunny all of the time we would get bored. If the music was great all of the time, we would get bored.
Its true and i add this cheap shot lang langs latest album is cang clang
I apologise for my own pile-on; in my defence I didn't like LL's recordings from the off, while Classic FM were lauding him as the greatest ever; for me, he deserved his moniker of Bang Bang. And that's fine. Other people enjoyed his playing, I still have my own personal favourites to enjoy - and in fairness to Mr LL I've heard him play a lot better too, once he toned down the rather aggressive touch. For what it's worth, I'm a really s*** pianist, and that's also fine, because I'm not in the market for recording and making money thereof - and therein lies the rub, for me - that the music biz is in the hands of money-making promoters who don't really care whether something is good, bad or indifferent, so long as it sells. I'm glad I commented though, as I would probably not have found the excellent Cortot recordings recommended to me by another commenter. I'm all for "being kind" but that shouldn't get in the way of calling out something for what it quite frankly is. Have a great day :)
You don't get better unless you make mistakes. Ah, and there's the rub. Lang Lang is really a performer. And in this day and age, mass media props up artists across the spectrum. Take Liberace. Was he talented, yes. But could you see him playing the Rach 3 back in the day. Probably not.
Actually I could.
Oh he would, but in a simplified arrangement, just like almost everything he played.
@@davidrowe1004 If you search TH-cam there is a film of Liberace playing the Tchaikovsky 1. The notes are all there.