Posted by Dan N on July 13, 2000 at 22:15:53:
In Reply to: American brass playing and ethnocentrism posted by A. Nonymous on July 13, 2000 at 07:08:07:
On the ethnocentrism front, I've noticed that when recordings are mentioned on this BBS, 90% of them are American recordings. I remember that when the Vienna Philharmonic played in NYC last year, a few people were putting up posts basically saying "I've never really heard this Vienna mob play. I never realised how good they are!" I find this incredible to say the least. Europe was where this whole thing we call "Classical Music" kicked off about 400 years back. It is, IMHO, foolish not to listen to (and own recordings of) European orchestras as well as American ones. Here is a very loose analogy. Just say you like Indian music but, most, if not all, of the recordings you own are of non-Indians playing it. I know, it's an extremely loose (maybe foolish) analogy, but it's a good one to illustrate my line of thinking. Don't get me wrong, the American brass tradition is one to be proud of but, it was a tradition started elsewhere, being imported from Europe.
Now, back to my opening statement, dealing with people owning mainly American recordings, the Reiner/CSO days were amazing, but not definitive! Have a look at some CD review sites and check out magazines like Grammophone. European orchestra very feature prominently. I know A.Nomynous wanted this to be tuba-centred but, step back from the trees, so you can see the forest.