Nostalgia

Noone comes close to Furtwaengler's Schubert 9th. I wish we were more often allowed nowdays to make raw music, rather than/as well as cultivated music. There is much talk about the demise of classical music, and how it needs to be made hip and relevant again. How about allowing classical musicians who are alive and creative and dangerous to again participate in the "industry" machine, rather than focus almost entirely on safety, cleanliness and inoffensive correctness, despite lip service to otherwise. THAT is the death of art. Good marketing doesn't address the fundamental need of people and audiences to be moved and to be excited. Especially young people who still can dream. Education (at a young age but not only) is certainly an issue as well, but the ossifying of musical performance is almost entirely ignored in internal classical music discussions, replaced often by self congratulatory "amazing" "renowned" "ground-breaking" "riveting" epithets. Yet I'm starting to see the backlash against all that and a desire to be set free within students and working classical musicians, even if they feel that could jeopardize their employment in the great cog machine. But hopefully the numbers and courage will swell, and classical music will no longer be a haven largely for conservatives, but include more revolutionaries in middle rangs, not just the occasional super-star soloist artist who can break ranks without fear.