So what's the "young punk" supposed to play? We all started somewhere. If people who weren't "mature" enough spent their time learning musically shallow, technical junk, then they'd have a much harder time ever growing up in a musical sense.
Nobody's first Beethoven sonata was particularly noteworthy, and yet that doesn't stop young people from tackling them. Likewise, people playing Rach 3 who might not really understand the work in its full breadth are still growing up and learning. Furthermore, I would guess that not a single pianist learns Rach 3 simply for the sake of technical fireworks or prestige. Perhaps the finished product of the vast majority of young pianists
sounds dull and dry, but nobody (besides Pollini, perhaps

) purposefully and consciously plays in such a manner.
On a slightly different note, I'm rather tired of all this "true music is lost" garbage. I do agree that perhaps a greater portion of pianists today are more mundane than those of 50 or 100 years ago (not that I lived that long to compare

), but there
are many musicians of all ages who are magnificent artists. Perhaps the blame should not be placed on pianists who struggle to find a unique voice and fail, but rather it should be placed upon the listener who is so entrenched in this idea of a "musical wasteland" that they refuse to believe in great, living musicians even when they hear them.
Hope that made a bit of sense, it's past midnight.
