Convincing of what? That the performers knew the piece and knew how to play it?

I can’t stand pretentiousness and pretentious people love to go on about, “It was a very convincing reading.” They can’t just say: It was a good performance. Or: It was a superb performance. No, they have to go on about this “reading.” In reality, nobody was “reading” anything other than the score in front of them unless it was a pianist stuck in the silly tradition that they must perform “from memory” per some ludicrous tradition (per god Franz Liszt?). (Related: Pianists: Use your scores).

I have stopped reading comments under classical music video because I can’t take them anymore. Too much conductor-worshipping — idiots act like he was the only musician on stage when the Orchestra and Chorus could have probably performed the piece without him based on their high-skill level and preparation — people using the wrong words, people trying to give the impression they are authorities on music when it’s obvious by the way they write that they’re not and so forth. Too often some nut is going on about “It was a very convincing reading” or “Sublime” – yeah, that’s another one. Every performance is “sublime” with these classical music armchair critics. I think they are the people with no talent who decided to be a self-appointed music critics and knew they couldn’t get into any Conservatory or University School of Music because they couldn’t play any instrument at all or well enough to pass the stringent audition requirements, and it would take too much work and money to do so, so they took the easy way out and became armchair music critics.

As for classical music commenters: Can’t anyone be original and think for themselves rather than regurgitating what someone else has said? No, apparently not.