Off The Shelf

[Nicki & Neale Paterson]

Berbard wrote:

>Both Redrick and Neale (who drags Nicky into every discussion) seem to
>use the same tactics to influence the audience, but wish to lead us
>into different directions. Rick's (unspoken) suggestion is that's what
>out of print is no good, however he does find and indeed cleary states
>the possible reasons for Volkov's success, who's book he considers not
>to be truthful.

I didn't mean to defend IM (or SV) by pointing to the popularity of his
book, in my personal experience. I was trying to defend my statement
that some of the ideas contained in both men's works had spread 'like
wild-fire', a statement for which Redrick has taken me to task. I
concluded the section in question by stating that I made no judgement on
the quality of either book based on its circulation statistics. And just
about every reference I have made to either book in the past has been
negative. But I don't dismiss TNS out of hand, certainly, and Maxim's
testimonial cannot be easily dismissed.

In a previous post I called Macdonald's interpretations 'old-fashioned'.
I compared them to romantic 19th century programmatic readings. In fact
in some ways they remind me of the literary criticism of the politically
committed C19 Russian writers like Herzen and Dobrolyubov - who could
find evidence of 'realism' and 'committment' even in such apolitical
magic realists as Gogol, when it suited them. I wonder if this school of
criticism has continued in Russia - and if this might explain Maxim's
approval of Macdonald?

Cheers!

...Neale...

[redrick]

nea...@pacific.net.sg (Nicki & Neale Paterson) wrote:

>Maxim's
>testimonial cannot be easily dismissed.
>

Perhaps not, but let us not forget that this "testimonial"
consists only of a jacket blurb, and many people are generous
with such things.

-Rick
http://www.az.com/~redrick/Shostakovich.html
--
red...@az.com, in a.f.s.,

"...with teacup-storm philosophers, exploded
revisionist historians, stubbornly Steady State
cosmologists, or pallid poets..."
-Martin Amis, "The Information"

[Nicki & Neale Paterson]

[Apologies to Vaclav Havel for the header.]

Concerning the difficulty of 'easily dismissing' Maxim's testimonial for
TNS, Redrick wrote:

> ...let us not forget that this "testimonial" consists only of

> a jacket blurb, and many people are generous with such things.

If this isn't dismissing it easily, I don't know what is. Certainly
it is a 'jacket blurb', for what that's worth, but what after all is a
'jacket blurb'? A public statement made by one person in support of
another. More than just a private nod of approval - a willingness to
identify oneself openly as a supporter, to the extent of trying to drum
up sales for the work in question. I'd call that laying it on the line,
myself.

Has Maxim really been so promiscuous in his public approvals? Does he
take offers from the highest bidder? Maybe that crafty IM convinced him
to sign his name to something else - 'Ian Macdonald is a moronic, pop-
crazed musical illiterate' perhaps? - then slipped the 'testimonial' bit
in afterwards. I wouldn't put it past him, personally.

There's also the question of IM's influence on Maxim's recordings.
(Even Ashkenazy's, perhaps). But that, of course, is very difficult to
quantify. (Just give me the nod, though...)

Cheers!

...Neale...