> You can say that about all live musical performance.
No you can’t because the imprecision of each individual live performance is key to the charm of live performances.
However, the author makes very clear that in this particular type of performance, imprecision is by definition a flaw in performance. By their own standards, a single precisely correct recording of any given piece can never be topped by any live performance. The logical end is that for the genre, one only needs one precisely correct recording for any given piece, and all other performance is superfluous and flawed.
This is an institutional mindset problem. Music with creative expression lobotomized out of it having a diminishing audience not able to support its practicioners’ financial ambitions is not exactly a huge surprise.
A great orchestra like this is malleable to what any conductor wants. One of the great things about Classical is that no two performances sound the same. Even when it’s the same orchestra playing.
There was a radio story I heard that Beethoven’s 5th Symphonywas meant to be played at about twice the tempo we usually hear.
You are not taking into account differences in interpretation. Some conductors emphasize certain aspects of a piece over others. Some are faster, some are slower. Some just suck. Sometimes, a recording does not do the performance justice, and you cannot hear something that should be heard. Or there could be a soloist in a concerto or a concert piece that makes or breaks a performance.