K2Grey
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2005
- Posts
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- 11
I did think, when listening to Heifetz, that the sound was somewhat thin. But being inexperienced with solo violin in general, I have no clue whether that's a Heifetz trait or a trait of violins in general (as opposed to say cello).
But for sure it's very dubious to claim that he sucks. It seems to be popular in classical music threads or forums to denounce everyone but your personal heroes as sucking, and to interpret your taste as being the primary factor in quality. Thus, Heifetz, Brendel, Uchida, Ashkenazy, etc. etc. all suck. Heck, people even say Mozart sucks and is a series of cheap tricks.
But when you think about it from a less overwrought standpoint that doesn't really make sense at all. For example, apparently Perlman thought Heifetz was godlike. So if you think Heifetz sucks then it follows that Perlman has no taste. Similarly, Rubinstein was Heifetz's piano trio partner, so if Heifetz sucks then Rubinstein either didn't care about his chamber music or else he's not a discerning pianist. And so on and so forth.
Can't we just say that there are many skillful players and they play in different ways that may or may not be to everyone's tastes? I'm amazed by even a mediocre player in how fast they can move their fingers around, and thus even more by the well-known players. Do we really need to go on about how people are washed up, soulless, nonmusical, over-Romantic, boring, plain, don't care about the composer's intention, bastardize the music, over-interpret, just play the notes as written, etc. etc. etc.
But for sure it's very dubious to claim that he sucks. It seems to be popular in classical music threads or forums to denounce everyone but your personal heroes as sucking, and to interpret your taste as being the primary factor in quality. Thus, Heifetz, Brendel, Uchida, Ashkenazy, etc. etc. all suck. Heck, people even say Mozart sucks and is a series of cheap tricks.
But when you think about it from a less overwrought standpoint that doesn't really make sense at all. For example, apparently Perlman thought Heifetz was godlike. So if you think Heifetz sucks then it follows that Perlman has no taste. Similarly, Rubinstein was Heifetz's piano trio partner, so if Heifetz sucks then Rubinstein either didn't care about his chamber music or else he's not a discerning pianist. And so on and so forth.
Can't we just say that there are many skillful players and they play in different ways that may or may not be to everyone's tastes? I'm amazed by even a mediocre player in how fast they can move their fingers around, and thus even more by the well-known players. Do we really need to go on about how people are washed up, soulless, nonmusical, over-Romantic, boring, plain, don't care about the composer's intention, bastardize the music, over-interpret, just play the notes as written, etc. etc. etc.
