Re: Rachmaninoff?

["Keith Weston" <jkweston@email.unc.edu>]

> 
>      A Glenn Gould list talking about Rachmaninoff?  I've got to get my
> two-cents in worth fast, I guess.
>      I can't stand Rachmaninoff and I never could.  IMHO, Rachmaninoff is
> a crowd-pleaser who was born about 50 years too late. 

Isn't it unfortunate that the term "crowd-pleaser" is a pejorative 
phrase?  What is wrong with pleasing a wide public?  If there's one 
force "killing" classical music in the 20th century it's music 
created in academic arrogance divorced of the need to be heard 
widely. Consider: composers ought to be crowd-pleasers, or concerned 
with reaching a crowd.  If a piece is on paper and is never played, 
does it make a sound?  I have no problem with composers aiming to 
please, even if it means writing an occasional saccharine melody.

 I'd be interested in hearing your ideas about Rachmaninoff's 
Midnight Vespers choral work.  

I wish I had more time to develop the ideas I want to answer this 
charge, but I have to go to work.

Best to all,
Keith Weston


 

Keith Weston  http://www.io.com/~jkweston
As heard on WUNC-FM, 91.5, Ur In Pea Are Station
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God's ways to man.
	A.E. Housman , "Terence, this is stupid stuff"