Re: GG: Deification

[Alan <alan@dorsai.dorsai.org>]

Is it in the nature of great artists to put-down other great artists; I 
guess so. Eccentricity includes lack of humility and delusions of 
greatness; even belief in one's own greatness. 
GG was great. Arthur RUbenstein was great. Alfred Cortot was great. 
Dino Lupati was great. Leon Fleischer was great. Arthur 
Schnabel was great. Lenny was great. Oscar HAmmerstein was great. Rudolf 
Serkin was great. Robet Casadesus was great. We know not of their 
put-downs of Mozart or Beethoven or each other. 

This baseball metaphor may not travel the world real well, but here goes: 
Does MArk McGuire or Ken Griffy Jr. knock Babe Ruth?

alan@dorsai.org
nyc/us

If the election were held today, would you vote for "I never inhaled," or
"Smoking's not addictive?"



On Tue, 27 Aug 1996, Alun Severn wrote:

> Alan F wrote:
> 
>     >
>     >   GG didn't think of WMA's late works?   GG did or
>     >   could have produced the last 3 symphonies, 39,40,41, a
>     >   clarinet concerto and a Requiem in his final days? Or in
>     >   any days? I am truly amazed by the hubris shown on this
>     >   group by deifying GG. Hey, he was a guy. He played
>     >   piano. He went bonkers, like Horowitz, afraid to face
>     >   the people who made his career.   And, he
>     >   insisted that the world accept his humming and chair
>     >   noises along with the music of Bach.   Please all.
>     >   Let's put the guy in perspective.
>     >
> 
> Hmm...a succinct argument against deification--and one I have some sympathy
> with. But for that matter, WAM was a puerile and maladjusted individual; he
> happened to write sublime music--but one would probably have tired of his
> company in minutes.
>         Beethoven--was it LvB?--is rumoured to have had fleas and
> innumerable behavioural problems. The great writer, speaker and thinker,
> compiler of the extraordinary DICTIONARY, Dr Samuel Johnson, is said to
> have suffered from something akin to Tourette's Syndrome. The point I am
> making here is that it has often been the case that grat art flows from
> some of the frailest, most tortured human beings. Not Gods; often not even
> great people. Addictions, mental illness, weaknesses. Art, along with
> everything else both good, bad and indifferent, arises out of the *human
> condition*. That is probably the most extraordinary thing about it.
>         But this is a good thread--provocative. Let's see 32 variations on
> this one!
> 
> - best,    Alun
> 
> 26/8/96
> 11:41 pm
> 
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