On Thu, 18 Jan 2001, John Halle wrote:
> In what sense was Stravinsky not a virtuouso?
Virtuoso is term that chiefly applied to one's skills on an instrument.
One interesting thing about musical virtuoisity is that it has evolved just as clearly and enormously over the last 100 years as basketball virtuosity. I have a wonderful recording of a lecture by Peter Schickele that compares Stravinsky conducting one of the best professional orchestras of his time in Rite of Spring. It's an interesting recording because it bears on a debate of how fast the piece was supposed to go. It was written to go quite a bit faster than it he or any of his contemporaries conducted it. But when you hear this recording, you understand why: the orchestra is just barely hanging on at times. Schickele then played a record of a local community orchestra playing the same piece in the early 70s. There was no comparison. The community orchestra of the 70s was head and shoulders above beond the pros of the 20s. Time signatures that were once at the edge of nonsense became an everyday thing that any skillful kid could do.
Michael __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com