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Norrington Sucks - Here' s Why - Darkest Secrets Uncovered

Posted by Severius! (A) on November 25, 2002 at 18:57:51

In Reply to: Norrington's Beethoven Sym 1 & 8 posted by John C. - Aussie on November 24, 2002 at 14:00:47:

A total charlatan. Having pursued some of the same areas of musical study that he baldly exploits, I can tell you he's usually either exaggerating or simply lying shamelessly.

His justifications for his Bruckner are so spurious as to be beyond ridiculous; were anyone else to make such statements (say, Solti, were he alive) that person would nailed to the cross, burned alive, and shot full of hollow point bullets - simultaneously.

His Beethoven (and Brahms, and Schumann, and Wagner, and etc. etc) are all one thing: fast and expressionless. What gets me is that now one's ever put it together:

1. He first makes a big show about "HIS" research (as if he's actually conducting any);

2. He then claims to have discovered the one-and-only GEN-YOO-INE, super-authentic history performance practice (yeah, right - see his preface and hokey justification - oops, 'research' - to his Brahms Haydn Variations);

3. Then, INVARIABLY, and that means 110% of the time, he just goes FAST and HARD. Regardless of composer, composition, time, place, historic setting - it's always - ALWAYS - the same. Fast and hard. And, COLD.

He's like Boulez on ecstasy.

You may as well just drop steps 1 & 2, cause the outcome's always the same. It's always going to go just one way.

DARKEST SECRETS UNCOVERED
But, the elitest crowd need some intellectual justification for it's deplorable ignorance of music history (and that includes many music professionals who really do - or ought to - know better). Unfortunately, that would require a lot of arduous study, and even more arduous field research, if you're a professional. Who the hell wants to do that? Who's got time, when there's so much to do on the internet these days, besides just keeping up with and keeping your day job.

So, screw it. Just take your authenticity pre-digested, mass-marketed, ready to serve, like any other commodity. This's the consumer age. So, if some aging, originally career-failure, British bozo tells you he's conducted "research", and then he plays the music like some ultra-modern ultra-Communist, fast and hard and anti-feeling, on some old instruments which are likely NOT authentic for the period but sound wierd, so they must be "right", then, hell...IT'S AUTHENTIC!

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