You might find this comment useful, from Tim Page's Washington Post obit: “We have to live with the fact that a performance is given an artificial permanence, and that our ideas are always changing about a piece of music,” he[Pollini] told Gramophone magazine. “A record must be accepted as a document of a particular moment in time. I hardly ever listen to my old records.”
But, Ethan, your piece brings to mind other experiences and comments. A composer friend of mine after reading two reviews of a concert (not of HIS music): "They're reviewing their record collections, not the performance." (I think it was a Mahler concert.) And, given my undergraduate zeal regarding the "best" performances on record, my then-girlfriend said, "I'm not interested in Bernstein or Karjan, I'm interested in Beethoven!" .... It's also funny that comparing Page and Allen's assessments, Allen is the more Apollonian! ... And thanks for the recording tips anyway!
There‘s a documentary of Pollini on Youtube that might be of interest. A great inside into his thinking, especially since he gave so little interviews: https://youtu.be/LMpcUEVijyE?si=rSUCOLOR_ldzirsu
You might find this comment useful, from Tim Page's Washington Post obit: “We have to live with the fact that a performance is given an artificial permanence, and that our ideas are always changing about a piece of music,” he[Pollini] told Gramophone magazine. “A record must be accepted as a document of a particular moment in time. I hardly ever listen to my old records.”
But, Ethan, your piece brings to mind other experiences and comments. A composer friend of mine after reading two reviews of a concert (not of HIS music): "They're reviewing their record collections, not the performance." (I think it was a Mahler concert.) And, given my undergraduate zeal regarding the "best" performances on record, my then-girlfriend said, "I'm not interested in Bernstein or Karjan, I'm interested in Beethoven!" .... It's also funny that comparing Page and Allen's assessments, Allen is the more Apollonian! ... And thanks for the recording tips anyway!
There‘s a documentary of Pollini on Youtube that might be of interest. A great inside into his thinking, especially since he gave so little interviews: https://youtu.be/LMpcUEVijyE?si=rSUCOLOR_ldzirsu