For Free

I won a one month free membership in medici.tv and have been enjoying the concerts and operas.  Today I am listening to a marvelous B minor Mass from Notre Dame de Paris in 2006 with John Nelson conducting.

Joyce DiDonato sings the "Laudamus te," a wonderful lively piece with violin solo.  The entire performance is musically everything I wished I had heard last year at the Mondavi Center.  And they use regular Italian pronunciation.

I have been following lately the horn's argument over original instruments.  It is worth noting that this performance from Paris, and also the other one last year from Davis, were all on modern instruments.  My favorite horn quote is "Instruments don't make music--people do." 

Part of the argument is the perception that modern instrument orchestras all sound the same.  What is meant by this is that they play more consistently in tune, I suppose.   If the performance standards are high enough, I enjoy a good original instrument orchestra.