Perhaps changing one's opinions is not something that frequently happens among people here, including myself 
, but I was wondering what examples boardees had about significant changes in their own opinions about artists (or musical works).
For my own part I have two major examples. The first was André Previn. When he was appointed music director of the LSO, I had been very keen on the orchestra, particularly devouring recordings of Mahler symphonies from Horenstein and various recordings by Kertesz and Colin Davis. Previn about whom I knew little did not seem likely to match up to the quality of those conductors, and when he began his TV shows popularising classical music I thought - it seems ridiculous and unforgivably snobbish looking back on it - that he was demeaning the orchestra. Only when I started to watch some of the shows, and listen to some of his concerts and recordings - a brilliant recording of the complete Romeo and Juliet ballet music especially, and his Mozart concerto recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic - did I begin to realise how very gifted he was and how wrong I had been to dismiss him.
The second example was Karajan. I had initially been put off by the superstar image he seemed to create of himself and by scathing reviews by the likes of David Cairns seeking to portray him as a purveyor of glossy sheen and superficial beauty of orchestral tone. It took a long time - well into the 1980s or even 1990s - before I started to listen to some of his recordings, broadcast on R3 and beginning to be released more cheaply on budget CDs. The Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the BPO and the Vienna Singverein and a list of soloists including Gundula Janowitz and Fritz Wunderlich forced me to reconsider my previous low opinion of HvK (which in truth was based on little more than second-hand opinion).
Apart from those two cases, I have also encountered disappointing performances/recordings by artists I tend to admire (it took me a long time to admit to myself that not every Furtwängler recording was a stellar experience) and instances where conductors don't seem to work so well with some orchestras as others: Chailly's recordings with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra often seem preferable to me than those he made with the Concertgebouw, but perhaps I have not been so lucky with the latter, and Slatkin imv did some very good work with the Philharmonia when he really had no kind of relationship with the BBCSO.
Two general rules I now try to live by: firstly, never, ever, rely solely on the opinion of someone else in evaluating either music or musical performance; and secondly, don't assume that one bad performance, or bad experience of a piece of music, should permanently cloud your view of that artist or that work.
, but I was wondering what examples boardees had about significant changes in their own opinions about artists (or musical works).For my own part I have two major examples. The first was André Previn. When he was appointed music director of the LSO, I had been very keen on the orchestra, particularly devouring recordings of Mahler symphonies from Horenstein and various recordings by Kertesz and Colin Davis. Previn about whom I knew little did not seem likely to match up to the quality of those conductors, and when he began his TV shows popularising classical music I thought - it seems ridiculous and unforgivably snobbish looking back on it - that he was demeaning the orchestra. Only when I started to watch some of the shows, and listen to some of his concerts and recordings - a brilliant recording of the complete Romeo and Juliet ballet music especially, and his Mozart concerto recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic - did I begin to realise how very gifted he was and how wrong I had been to dismiss him.
The second example was Karajan. I had initially been put off by the superstar image he seemed to create of himself and by scathing reviews by the likes of David Cairns seeking to portray him as a purveyor of glossy sheen and superficial beauty of orchestral tone. It took a long time - well into the 1980s or even 1990s - before I started to listen to some of his recordings, broadcast on R3 and beginning to be released more cheaply on budget CDs. The Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the BPO and the Vienna Singverein and a list of soloists including Gundula Janowitz and Fritz Wunderlich forced me to reconsider my previous low opinion of HvK (which in truth was based on little more than second-hand opinion).
Apart from those two cases, I have also encountered disappointing performances/recordings by artists I tend to admire (it took me a long time to admit to myself that not every Furtwängler recording was a stellar experience) and instances where conductors don't seem to work so well with some orchestras as others: Chailly's recordings with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra often seem preferable to me than those he made with the Concertgebouw, but perhaps I have not been so lucky with the latter, and Slatkin imv did some very good work with the Philharmonia when he really had no kind of relationship with the BBCSO.
Two general rules I now try to live by: firstly, never, ever, rely solely on the opinion of someone else in evaluating either music or musical performance; and secondly, don't assume that one bad performance, or bad experience of a piece of music, should permanently cloud your view of that artist or that work.
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