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one of the things The Algorithm is feeding me is videos by this guy named Dave Hurwitz, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=344ySyAbp94
he's got lots of videos, he's got lots of lists. doesn't have the production values or the camera presence that means that every video by rick beato gets millions of views. anyway, i like classical music but i don't listen to a lot of it. it's one of those types of content where i only watch it in private videos, because i watch too much of, i start getting recommended really hard right-wing shit. i had some trepidation about clicking on his videos, because, i mean, old white guy talking about classical music, you don't know what you're gonna get.
except in the context of classical music fandom, he doesn't get seen as an "old white guy" the way i see him, he gets looked at as _jewish_. i mean to be clear i'm a total goy, i just happened to grow up in new jersey, is all. all hurwitz being "jewish" means to me is that i have less hesitation in watching him because he's less likely to suddenly start saying nazi shit the way a lot of classical fans do. i'll be watching a video about one of the Great Composers, because i _do_ like a lot of the Great Works by the Great Composers, i'm basic that way, and all of a sudden the person will start dog-whistling. that's really unpleasant. i really feel taken and and gross and disgusted when someone who's knowledgeable about something i'm interested in outs themselves as anti-semitic.
his demeanor is a little boomerish but idk he's kinda fun to watch, he's kinda the stuff i like about older folks (even though honestly he's maybe not even _that_ much older than me, haha). he's really opinionated but i also know enough to know that he's really knowledgeable. when he starts dunking on, like, celibidache, i'm right there rooting him on, cuz the celibidache i've heard, it's fuckin' tedious. i don't have the musical knowledge to have an informed opinion on this stuff, but in general i feel like this dude has his head screwed on right when it comes to classical music. like even when he's saying "controversial" stuff it's not _that_ controversial, something like "kleiber's recording of beethoven's fifth is overrated", i mean, it's hard to do something that acclaimed and _not_ be overrated. it's like when something is acclaimed as the Best Wine Ever, is it really _that_ much better than the Second Best Wine Ever? no, but all anybody wants is The Absolute Best and nothing else counts for shit. that's capitalism, baby!
anyway the thing i like about this video is his talking about the anti-semitic crap he faces and where it comes from. and a lot of it is from the celibidache fans. i mean celibidache is the closest i can think of to an _actual_ zen fascist. not a literal fascist - in 1945 he replaced furtwangler while he was being "de-nazified" - but the fucking bullshit he pulled on abbie conant, because, horror of horrors, she's a _woman_... it's so appalling. and hurwitz doesn't even _talk_ about that that i've seen. mostly he talks about the recordings, which he says often sound pretty boring. and then people come at him with anti-semitic crap and _then_ he takes a break from talking about the music to talk about celibdache's "cult".
it's kinda fascinating because in his case i'm listening for, like... i'm almost hearing reverse dog-whistles. the way he's _not_ calling out furtwangler's fanbase as being only interested in the nazi 9th because they're wehraboos. which is like... i mean, i don't have the depth of classical listening knowledge that hurwitz does, but i listen to that and honestly, i can't imagine people being interested in it for simply musical reasons. it's the narrative around it. i'm guilty of that myself! there's some recordings i love mostly because there's a good story around them. i'm not gonna claim to be "all about the music". i don't just like martha argerich because of her performance skills. i like her because she's _temperamental_. i'm _temperamental_ myself.
but what hurwitz says is that celibidache supporters are _more_ anti-semitic than furtwangler fans. i think that's really interesting. because he also goes on to say that everything furtwangler stans say to him is some sort of apologia for his support of nazi germany. well he rips apart that apologia, but _doesn't_ say that those arguments are anti-semitic. that interests me. because when i hear him describe the arguments furtwangler apologists make, those arguments _sound_ pretty anti-semitic to me.
generally i'm not a huge fan of videos of some old white guy talking to the camera about classical music i haven't heard, but i admit to having enjoyed the videos of his i've seen. he's cranky in all the right ways. like at the beginning of the video he goes off on this rant about how hard it is for him to offer critique of classical recordings because when he tries to present excerpts of those recordings one of the major conglomerates goes off and files a copyright claim, which isn't about the money for him _directly_, but the knock-on effects. one of these companies files a claim and it fucks up the entire channel. like to me i see something like that and my response is "death to capitalism" and some really cute emoji but he's not like that, he's just trying to do his job, which is talking about classical music. it's not something i often get to encounter on the internet, and it was cool to spend a little time hearing his perspective.
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 6 June 2024 22:50 (one week ago) link