Doublestop Magazine

The Rest Is Noise

From a mention of an interview by Alex Ross, we’ll move to an interview of Alex Ross. This time noted blogger Jason Kottke quizzes Ross on his new book The Rest Is Noise). Kottke asks a questions I’ve often wondered about myself — with all the recordings out there in the classical genre, how does one pick the “right” one? Ross responds:

It’s definitely overwhelming - a serious glut. I’ve been reviewing for fifteen years and in the last year or two I seem to be getting twice as many CDs as ever - not to mention all the MP3s that composers and ensembles have put up on the Internet. There are definitely some significant differences among recordings. You have a lot of expert but boring renditions and then you have the ones that touch perfection or posses exceptional emotional power. Listen to Lorrane Hunt Lieberson singing the Bach cantatas and everyone else will sound a little wan. Certain people are always reliable - Yo-Yo Ma is ever eloquent, Mitsuko Uchida is a great pianist, Claudio Abbado makes one great or near-great orchestral recording after another. You can tell from Amazon reviews when a recording has really knocked people sideways. But live concerts are always better!