Re: Beethoven's Late Quartets - Colorado SQ.

On Dec 24, 8:56�pm, "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgee...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I'm just getting accustomed to Ms. Bayley's reviews. Her overall views of
what constitute "good" and "bad" performances are similar to mine, but not
having heard any of the performances she's reviewed, I remain open as to
whether her actual judgements match mine.

>snip<

I can't resist adding some comments. I agree with what you wrote,
but on more than one occasion I have noticed errors of fact in her
reviews. Especially when she writes about historical recordings, which
are a particular interest and area of study for me. Before I go
further I want to say that my comments concern Ms. Bayly's review of a
Pristine Audio release. I know that Andrew Rose contributes here, and
I want to emphasize that my comments shouldn't be construed as
implying that I suspect him of any involvement in what she wrote.

Ms. Bayly has had reviews in probably the last three issues of
Fanfare. In the first, she reviewed the recent Pristine Audio
remastering of Mengelberg's live performance of Mahler's Fourth
Symphony. She began by stating that although she'd heard about the
performance and recording for years, the Pristine Audio CD was the
first time she had ever heard it. She then wrote at great length,
stating that she found the performance marvellous. All well and good.
Then -- at the end of her review -- she went into ecstasies about the
sound of the Pristine Audio transfer, stating that all previous
incarnations had been inferior and even listing a couple of ways in
which they were. (I no longer have the issue, so I regret being unable
to quote her directly.)

So: she began by writing that this was the first time she'd ever
heard any version of the recording, then ended by not only saying that
it sounded better than any of the older versions that she'd admitted
having never heard, but listing in what ways it excelled. As a friend
of mine might say, "hello? If you'd never heard the older versions,
and therefore couldn't know how they sounded, how do you know HOW they
sounded?"

It wasn't the only time Ms. Bayly has done such things; just the
most flagrant. Opinions about performances and music are one thing.
Things such as this are another. She's lucky I'm not in charge. She'd
be fired on the basis of this instance alone. I meant to write a
letter to Fanfare about it, but typically did not.

Again, I don't want anyone to think I mean to implicitly involve
Andrew Rose in any of this.

Don Tait

.

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