Re: Rifkin ? Gould

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

Hi Fminor,


I may need to clear up something that may have gotten lost in my enthusiasm
for Rifkin and my disappointment that no one, not the detractors or the
defenders or even Rifkin himself, ever mention Gould in the writings on the
one player per part issue.  And that is there are very tangible/audible
trade-offs to be made by going Rifkin's route.  In the choruses of the
cantatas you don't get anything like the deep-throated, shouting, glorious
wall of beauty  that you get in recordings like Gardiner's and Richter's.
Not such a big deal, I imagine, in the cantatas where there are relatively
few parts of the chorus, but certainly more controversially in the works
we've come to thing of as Bach's large-scale works, the Mass and the
Passions.  I can't wait to hear Rifkin and Parrott's Passions.

Also, where Gould and Rifkin sometimes depart ways is that can sometimes be
very much "in your face" where as Rifkin's often leads to a more reposed
feel.  I often see Rifkin and Parrott's performance described as intimate,
and I think the same is true of Gould's Bach, though Gould can have an
aggressive intimacy.

Goodnight,

Jim