Authentic fetish
Sir: I'd like to make a few points that arise from Richard Abram's letter about mod- ern Bach-performance (21 October). First it is hardly 'anachronistic' for Vaughan Williams to be rooted in the 19th century since he was nearly 30 at the start of the 20th. Obviously he was of his time: he was also extremely musical and far from crass. Such things were possible in the dark ages before authenticity became a fetish. Second; that Bach was consistently dis- satisfied with the calibre and number of musicians available to him is well-attested in his eloquent letters begging for more and better. Third; I would not express an opinion, especially one so severe, after hearing only a few of the Harmoncourt/ Leonhardt performances. Mr Abram's phrase 'I love Beecham's Messiah; but I honestly prefer Handel's' encapsulates the attitude I deplore. It presumes the musical work to be a finished object, like a sculpture, rather than some- thing that only exists by being realised over and again in different performances, in this instance down some 250 years, of con- tinuously evolving change. Genuinely to appreciate Beecham's Messiah is to appreciate Handel's. If someone said 'I like Olivier's Hamlet but I prefer Shakespeare's' the latent absurdity would be quite apparent.
Robin Holloway
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Previous page
