How many here were participants in Classicalinsites?

[Florestan]

He told you in detail about all the components he had, including super-strong magnets left over from the Soviet space program.

Then he must have often employed the term 'stellar' for his listening experience. 

[Spotted Horses]

I remember how specific he got. He told you in detail about all the components he had, including super-strong magnets left over from the Soviet space program. He said that you had to do yoga and be in a certain mood before listening to anything; otherwise you weren't really hearing the music. On the rare occasion that he went to a concert, he wore earmuffs. He called his home "The Anstendig Institute," which sounded incredibly pretentious. He studied with somebody called Morel at Juilliard, and he referenced Morel all the time ("Morel told me this, Morel said we should never do that"). He listened on reel-to-reel tape. It was pointless to ask him for a recording recommendation, because even if you had a turntable, you'd still be listening to it wrong.

He would have made a great fictional character. Hmm, that gives me an idea...

As I recall, he claimed he needed earmuffs because Davies Hall had been designed to sound like CDs.

I also gathered that he did not own the San Francisco home where his "institute" was based. He was taken in by some old lady who apparently though she was supporting a neglected genius. The Anstendig institute used to list the physical address and I looked it up. Now I have no recollection of where it is. I assume that Anstendig has shed his mortal coil, or at least been thrown out by the old lady.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Then he must have often employed the term 'stellar' for his listening experience. 

He used a lot of odd terminology, but the phrase he seemed to use the most was "dolce nuances." Which were, of course, audible only to him, since he was the only person with the correct equipment to hear them.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I just remembered something else. There was guy named Rick Allen on the board, who (like Wetmore) became a vinyl/SACD fanatic under Anstendig's influence. But unlike Wetmore, Rick Allen actually visited Anstendig at his "institute" and was treated to a listening session. And he was totally blown away by it - said he'd never heard such a fantastic system before.

I can believe it. I never had doubts that Anstendig had a tremendous stereo system that would make any audiophile proud. But given how esoteric and expensive the equipment was, all of this was irrelevant to schmoes like me, who just want to listen to music without bankrupting ourselves.

I also remember that Allen and Wetmore were both massive propagandists for SACD, the format that never quite took off.

[Spotted Horses]

We are focusing on Anstendig's foibles, but he was not without insight. He convinced me to listen to Barbirolli's Brahms symphonies, which he praised for their "dolce" approach. It was a revelation for me, since at the time I was captivated by Karajan's forceful, breathless approach and other traditional performance styles. Barbirolli's WPO set remains a favorite, and it changed the way I think about Brahms.

[Brian]

There is a Mark Anstendig on Google who appears to be some kind of TV producer. You all have me curious if he's the one!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

There is a Mark Anstendig on Google who appears to be some kind of TV producer. You all have me curious if he's the one!

I saw a photo of the producer. Way too young - the one we're talking about must be over 80 by now. Here's the "institute" website:

http://www.anstendig.org/index.htm

[T. D.]

Another guy who just came to mind is Joel Warren Lidz, Ph.D. Occasionally posted about organ music on CI, seemed to have legitimate expertise. He's also posted on r.m.c.r. My memory may have mixed up Don Satz and Joel Lidz to some degree.

[Spotted Horses]

There is a Mark Anstendig on Google who appears to be some kind of TV producer. You all have me curious if he's the one!

I can't imagine. This is him from his CI days ~25 years ago:



Besides his anstendig institute page, which I linked above, there is a page with his photo gallery.

https://anstendig.com/

On the home page there is scolding about the resolution of your monitor.

The institute

http://www.anstendig.org/mainpage.htm

[T. D.]

Yeah, I looked up Mark Anstendig's photo gallery some years ago.
Just repeated the exercise: pics

Here's some documentation of Mr. Anstendig's past, notably a program listing him as playing tuba in the 1956 Juilliard commencement concert: docs

[Florestan]

the one we're talking about must be over 80 by now.

According to his website, he was born in 1936, so he must be 88.

[Brian]

I saw a photo of the producer. Way too young - the one we're talking about must be over 80 by now. Here's the "institute" website:

http://www.anstendig.org/index.htm

Wow, I could spend all afternoon diving down this rabbit hole of eccentric opinions. He studied not just with Jean Morel but Ernst Marzendorfer and Nadia Boulanger! I wonder which one of them taught him that Mahler's Seventh Symphony is a programmatic description of family vacation, complete with melodies depicting the wife and kids, or that Mahler's Fourth is a satire. And then there is the link to the description of Brahms' "Also Rhapsody" 

[Florestan]

Wow, I could spend all afternoon diving down this rabbit hole of eccentric opinions. He studied not just with Jean Morel but Ernst Marzendorfer and Nadia Boulanger! I wonder which one of them taught him that Mahler's Seventh Symphony is a programmatic description of family vacation, complete with melodies depicting the wife and kids, or that Mahler's Fourth is a satire. And then there is the link to the description of Brahms' "Also Rhapsody" 

My favorite is this one:

The Treasure Hunt - Boris Giovanni: The Most Magnificent Thing in the World

Should have been Boris Giovannovich, methinks... 

[ritter]

Wow, I could spend all afternoon diving down this rabbit hole of eccentric opinions. He studied not just with Jean Morel but Ernst Marzendorfer and Nadia Boulanger! I wonder which one of them taught him that Mahler's Seventh Symphony is a programmatic description of family vacation, complete with melodies depicting the wife and kids, or that Mahler's Fourth is a satire. And then there is the link to the description of Brahms' "Also Rhapsody" 

Wow... that gentleman is an expert in everything! Amazing ! A "todólogo" (an untranslatable Spanish neologism).   

I am a relative newcomer, so never met any of the people mentioned. I don't even want to imagine what will be said about us in 20 years time (perhaps nothing).

Reminds me of an anecdote of conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni with someone else (can't remember who) admiring a commemorative plaque in a house in Bergamo that had belonged to some illustrious historical figure. When asked "what plaque do you think they'll affix on our houses when we die?", Gavazzeni answered "Affittasi!" ("to let"). 

[Florestan]

I don't even want to imagine what will be said about us in 20 years time (perhaps nothing).

"Hey, do you remember that Reuter guy? I believe he was a Catalan."

"Vaguely. Wasn't he the guy who lost no opportunity to trash Wagner?"

"No, that was a guy from Budapest, Florist or something like that."

"Ah, yes, you're right. Reuter trashed Verdi."

[ritter]

    

[Karl Henning]

Anstendig, as I recall, also told stories about being in a Master Class with Karajan, and how Karajan found him superior to fellow student Ozawa, especially after how brilliantly Anstendig conducted the close of Sibelius 5.

(* chortle *)

[DavidW]

There is a Mark Anstendig on Google who appears to be some kind of TV producer. You all have me curious if he's the one!

He was already an old fart pining for the days of analog when I was on cmg so by now he would be either retired or passed.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Wow, I could spend all afternoon diving down this rabbit hole of eccentric opinions. He studied not just with Jean Morel but Ernst Marzendorfer and Nadia Boulanger! I wonder which one of them taught him that Mahler's Seventh Symphony is a programmatic description of family vacation, complete with melodies depicting the wife and kids, or that Mahler's Fourth is a satire. And then there is the link to the description of Brahms' "Also Rhapsody" 

"Big Mistake in Shoe Design" and "Deep Breathing: A Mistake" both look like they would be useful from a health-and-wellness POV. An awful lot of mistakes in the modern world, according to the guru Mark Anstendig.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I was a member of CI under my current handle and remember many of the names mentioned. Corlyss, who was mentioned in a previous post, died last year.

I cannot say I feel the slightest regret or sorrow on hearing this news. Corlyss in my opinion was a thoroughly awful person - dogmatic, humorless, vindictive. Rob Antecki on the other hand, is someone I cannot get out of my mind. Only 42. I have no idea if this was due to illness, accident, or even suicide. Poor guy didn't have much musical talent, but he loved music and he was the sweetest young kid you can imagine. He just seemed to me someone who never found his place in the world, and if suicide was the cause I would not feel surprised.

Ralph Stein died in 2012 from complications from diabetes, leaving behind a son named Teddy whom he would bring along to NY Phil concerts and let the kid play video games. Ralph loved organizing lunches, especially dim sum, for many of the CI peeps from New York, and loved conducting walking tours of the city. Before or after concerts, he and I would head to the Tower Records near Lincoln Center where he would just grab, anything or everything (except atonal crap, the immortal phrase Ralph invented), and he was so eager to play his purchases on the drive home that he would rip open the plastic wrappers with his teeth. He never took care of himself, however, and at one dinner he confessed to me he knew he was on borrowed time. He had indefatigable energy except when he suffered a heart attack apparently in 2006 and was hospitalized in Westchester. I drove one Saturday morning about 100 miles from my Long Island home to visit him, and I think he appreciated that. Actually I know he did, and I'm glad I did it.
https://www.classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=41178

Another deceased member from CMG was John Brosseau, who called himself jbuck919. He was an organist, probably gay, and a product of Princeton who once proudly informed us that he walked out of a performance of the Sibelius 7th symphony. I met him only once in person at a dinner in NYC (where no doubt Ralph Stein was present). My only memory of him was that we got into a fight on the boards about the last line in Moby Dick, which I quoted correctly and he said only applied to the movie version. Rather than look up the book himself, JBuck accused me of faulty memory and cognitive decline. I regret I cannot find the thread at CMG, where the only references to Moby Dick are about Jake Heggie's rather lousy opera and Peter Mennin's very strong Concertato.