Piano Audio Recordings Not For Me

I studied for a time with Canadian Composer David McIntyre, a student of Aaron Copland, and who subsequently introduced me to Lukas Foss and Gregory Millar. (Hey, if can't drop names in your own blog you wind up doing it indelicately in forced conversation).
I was auditioning for a collegiate choir in Canada where David was teacher and accompanist/arranger/composer. Without knowing he was brilliant -- plus the fact that he looked to be about 12 at the time -- I plopped my score from Bernstein's "Simple Song" from the Mass onto David's piano in prepartion to belt out the baritone.
"Oh, Bernstein," David said.
"Yeah," I said. "Think you can handle it?"
What a fool I made of me!
David taught me the value of placing myself under the more direct influence of music. He was an encouraging, quiet and profound musical presence in my life in those days.

Therefore, I have to say, I have avoided piano audio recordings like the plague. It is much so much more exciting and immediate to sit in the same room, in close promximity to the artist -- with nothing but our humanity and the inate spirituality that chaperone's all music into one's soul between us. This is electric and personal. It is important for me to see the artist's movements in the playing and performing. The artist and the piano become singular as the player becomes more essentially musical, and the instrument accomodating and welcoming to the personal. The result is not merely music, but an experience in musicality.
Better to be in the concert hall, if not actually on the stage with the performer, as I accidentally was back in 1976 when Igor Kipnis performed on his harpsichord in the Fine Arts Center at the University of Wyoming during its Elizabethan Days. By chance, myself and some of my motley friends were seated on overflow chairs on the stage. I was arm's length from the tip of his right shoulder. The recording would have induced irresistible napping, but on stage with Igor was captivating.
I have just heard an afternoon of Chopin performed at the WYO Theater, but, I would no more buy the CD than I would purchase an audio recording of a Broadway play. The motion and contribution of the key ingredient is absent -- the musician.
Now, the DVD is another matter. CD, borning. There is just too much missing. It is like eating a photograph of a good steak.