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Posted by Romy the Cat on
12-15-2024
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Posted by Paul S on
12-16-2024
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Yes, David Hurwitz is a wonderful, thoughtful and sane music-loving musicologist and critic who does not seem to take himself too seriously (although he knows what he knows). No surprise he is not an audio guy (any more than most musicians), and no surprise to me that he perceives a disconnect between audiophilia and Music, since Music has so little to do with "mainstream audio" in the first place, including the people who have achieved the pinnacle of mainstream audio by acquiring and assembling the most talked about electronics as an end in itself, or possibly as a means of hearing a test recording a certain proscribed way. Of course this is anathema to David and his ilk, and again no surprise that he is not aware of high-end audio as we approach it. And since our numbers are few, he likely has no idea how little use we have for mainstream audio, probably for similar or maybe the same reasons he is repulsed by it.
Great post. Nice to have it articulated and archived.
Get well!
Best regards,
Paul S
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
12-16-2024
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David Hurwitz is wonderful, but I have said in my video that
I have some very fundamental disagreements with him. It is not his selection, recommendations
or reasoning, this would be a normal agreement of disagreement that would be
perfectly fine between different people and there is nothing fundamental in
it. The fundamental disagreements between his and
my approach are in 2 following aspects:
1)
David uses his judgment to navigate and guide
his followers to buy the specific recording as “best buy”. This, my view compromises his recordation for the
best representation of a specific interpretation or the interpretation concept.
It feels like he does not want to appear as a “recordings pimp” but I very much
like him to act as the recording’s solicitor.
2)
In my view David too much gravitates to the “concert
style of opera”. What I mean is that he in my view accurately identifies purely
the musical value of specific recordings but the experience we, the listeners,
have with the recording does not necessarily have a direct correlation with purely
musical value, and here is where the “concert style of opera”. The experience of
opera is a complex multifaceted theatrical experience, Yes, music and singing are
a huge part of it but there are many other factors: specific stage production, the
charisma of the actors, and many others. In the end it the problem with David,
in my view, is that he undermines the process of listening to a recording as a sacred
transcendent event and converts it to a transactional hierarchical auditioning,
a sort of “concert style of opera”. One
of the greater benefits of perceiving musicality from a true High-End Audio
perspective is that the process of listening is meant to be a holy divine ceremony,
and the owner of the playback does not want to compromise it with either by weak
interpretation of the work nor by barbaric recording technics and certainly not
by ferocious efforts of playback chain to compromise the expressivity of a musical
interpretation.
If David took the above under consideration, he would be
much more impactful in his recommendations, including selling more CDs and I am
only welcome to it.
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Posted by Paul S on
12-16-2024
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Hmmm...
I have not heard David speak about opera, but I am very used to musicologists deconstructing a performance, and/or "leaving out" certain "human aspects" of a given performance or part of a performance, and I can certainly see where this might reach the acute stage where opera is concerned. I do not notice that he is trying to sell me something, perhaps I just don't listen for that, rather it seems to me he is "finding a need and filling it" with "soft sell" recommendations, as people generally seem to want information and recommendations about everything. I completely agree about the Divinity of Music but not surprised when people do not get it or they do not aim and work to that end. Just don't speak ill of Maria Callas...
Paul S
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Posted by mats on
12-17-2024
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Peter Szendy is a serious and sympathetic thinker.
Judging from this conversation with Mladen Dolar
https://youtu.be/IcjwgXQ7QwM?si=yzr5rigLEjT9DT0v
his book Listen: A History of our Ears, promises to be a good read.
From the jacket blurb:
“…where exactly does the listener stand in relation to the music s/he listens to?
What is the responsibility of the listener?
Does a listener have any rights, as the author and composer have copyright? Szendy explains his love of musical arrangement (since arrangements allow him to listen to someone listening to music),
and wonders whether it is possible in other ways to convey to others how we ourselves listen to music.
How can we share our actual hearing with others?”
On a perhaps related note, I find the Giuliani B9 LP from the Original Source series
more beautiful than my CD versions. Possible less compression, richer foundation, and lovely tone.
/ mats
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
12-17-2024
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 mats wrote: | On a perhaps related note, I find the Giuliani B9 LP from the Original Source series
more beautiful than my CD versions. Possible less compression, richer foundation, and lovely tone.
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This is VERY good news! Can you send a link?
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