So I get this email from one of my high school class mates through facebook; you have to see this, you just have to!!!
So I look and it's some guy playing harmonica at a religious meeting at Carnegie Hall - although if you look at the title one would think he was the actual virtuoso soloist booked into Carnegie. The announcer jokes with him about how the harmonica is a toy and then he plays a little Bach on a diatonic.
The playing is horrible, but the crowd loves it and the celebration of mediocrity goes on and on; and on to the Internet for everyone to see. And all of us are supposed to sit on hands and accept that the player is trying the best that he can and that everyone has the right to be an artist - in our case a harmonica soloist.
I am sorry folks, but I have watched hundreds of internet performances and in the classical area, my area of expertise, most of it sucks. It does suck a little bit, the playing is really not good. And even though the playing isn't that good and everyone keeps patting everyone else on the back! Most of the good performances are from times before the Internet or by players who were established before the internet.
I think its time to start speaking out - (I would like to say it's my old age and I have gotten intolerant to change), and I would say that if the performance was WOW that was different but amazing. But I am finding the Internet has become an advertising tool for everyone and therefore the mediocre have flooded the playing field.
Is this just me? Am I alone here?
Harmonically yours,
Robert Bonfiglio http://www.robertbonfiglio.com