Another musical comment

[robinturner]

I've just been listening to someone playing a Handel recorder sonata, and it's reminded me how bad most recorder players are. They lack the necessary subtle breath control, and put in lots of inappropriate ornamentation to disguise their lack of expression. It's really frustrating to hear someone playing music and getting paid for it, and to think "I could go into a studio tomorrow and do something better than that, despite not having played seriously for twenty years."

Comments

[senryu.livejournal.com]

That's what a lot of high school trumpeters felt about Chuck Mangione. But I don't think there are too many professional recorder players. So someone in the orchestra was probably given two weeks to bone up for the performance the way the percussion section gets to fire off the cannons once a year on the 4th of July. I confess to enjoying the grace notes, however, having done time in a pipe band.

[solri.livejournal.com]

Grace notes are fine, but it's not easy to choose them appropriately. The trick is to make them sound a natural part of the music, rather than just stuck on.