August 2009

I once had a very amusing violin teacher who went on and on about "quality". The Russian word for it is "kachestvo", and she'd jokingly refer to it as "kak-chestvo", which combines the word for "how" in Russian with the word for quality. I also remember my first impression of Oistrakh-"wow, what quality!". I haven't given this word, or its meaning much thought until recently. Quality isn't merely playing the notes with a pretty sound-but what is it? Why is its presence or absence so glaring?

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