kleines c

I've only ever noticed thoughtful and considered posts appearing under your name, kleines. I fear you are agonising overmuch. I know quite a few practicing musicians whose background knowledge of the music they play - and even worse, of the material they neither know nor care about - is precariously little.

And there is a further point. Classical music is NOT for classical musicians - it's for everyone. (Something which makes our mutual friend elsewhere spit venom when she hears it). There are no 'owners', and the proprietorial twaddle one hears - mainly on other sites - is a form of defensive behaviour that illustrates a low intellectual level. For example, there is one crazy wandering the ether who feels that all other composers must be belittled... so that the mighty Handel may shine more brightly? ???

Let me say this, quite clearly. If those of us who 'do' classical music are just doing it for ourselves, then it's simply a hobby. A performance with no audience is just a rehearsal. An animated, involved, and interested public is vital to the continuance of classical music, and serious orchestras, opera houses, ballet theatres and others realise this most intently. The audience is our SOLE concern. Without them - we cease to exist.

A keen and inquiring mind who has stumbled through a Bach prelude at the piano - with any number of false starts and wrong notes - will have come closer to an understanding of Bach than any cd-collector whose shelves are graced by Tureck, Richter, Egarr, and Pinnick :)