Focus on recordings interferes with music appreciation?

[starrynight]

I haven't looked through the whole thread but it seems to me that if you're happy with a recording then that's fine (whatever someone else may say).  If you have liked a piece but find listening to the same recording a bit boring get another one.  If you can't like a piece and so want to find another interpretation to convince you more then do that.  But to search for the perfect recording of something is probably pointless because there has to be more than one way to play a piece effectively and music is a living art not something which could be said dead or fixed.

[Sergeant Rock]

....there has to be more than one way to play a piece effectively and music is a living art not something which could be said dead or fixed.

Which is a good argument for acquiring, or at least hearing many versions of the same work. An argument I adhere to anyway 

Sarge

[starrynight]

If given a choice though I'd rather hear as many different pieces of music as possible rather than using that time to hear different versions of the same pieces.

[NorthNYMark]

If given a choice though I'd rather hear as many different pieces of music as possible rather than using that time to hear different versions of the same pieces.

Does it have to be one extreme or the other, though?  I love to discover new composers and works, but I also love returning to favorite (and even not-so-favorite) works, both tpo re-live known pleasures and to discover new ones.  Often different interpretations are like different performances of a play, offering an experience that involves the novel and the familiar at the same time.  To me, I don't feel as though I've really gotten to know a work until I've experienced it multiple times, from multiple points of view.  This makes my traversal through the world of classical music a bit slow, as I keep returning to the known and getting to know it more deeply while also expanding, slowly but surely into the heretofore unknown. 

[Wanderer]

Does it have to be one extreme or the other, though?  I love to discover new composers and works, but I also love returning to favorite (and even not-so-favorite) works, both to re-live known pleasures and to discover new ones.  Often different interpretations are like different performances of a play, offering an experience that involves the novel and the familiar at the same time.  To me, I don't feel as though I've really gotten to know a work until I've experienced it multiple times, from multiple points of view.  This makes my traversal through the world of classical music a bit slow, as I keep returning to the known and getting to know it more deeply while also expanding, slowly but surely into the heretofore unknown.

Totally agree with this.

[starrynight]

Does it have to be one extreme or the other, though?

No of course it doesn't.  Each to their own, I'm not one to prescribe that everybody has to do the same thing.  I just have a thirst for new things all the time and there's a never ending list of things for me to hear.  And maybe hearing a variety of things together helps expand my listening ability.  But each person will obviously do what suits them.  My enthusiasms shift more frequently than some perhaps so I don't like to keep on one thing for a while.

[starrynight]

Does it have to be one extreme or the other, though?

Also I think when someone wants to argue a particular side of an argument it almost inevitably can make them sound more extreme than they actually are.  All of us will do breadth and depth to an extent it's just a matter of what the balance is.

[NorthNYMark]

Also I think when someone wants to argue a particular side of an argument it almost inevitably can make them sound more extreme than they actually are.  All of us will do breadth and depth to an extent it's just a matter of what the balance is.

Good point!

[Moonfish]

Does it have to be one extreme or the other, though?  I love to discover new composers and works, but I also love returning to favorite (and even not-so-favorite) works, both tpo re-live known pleasures and to discover new ones.  Often different interpretations are like different performances of a play, offering an experience that involves the novel and the familiar at the same time.  To me, I don't feel as though I've really gotten to know a work until I've experienced it multiple times, from multiple points of view.  This makes my traversal through the world of classical music a bit slow, as I keep returning to the known and getting to know it more deeply while also expanding, slowly but surely into the heretofore unknown.

+1