My old hunting buddy Byron Ferguson says that the longbow is inherently "more forgiving" due to the thickness of the limbs versus the flatter, thinner, limbs of a recurve. The basic concept is the presumption that an off release, for example, will have less effect on the string/limb's side-to-side movement during the bow's powerstroke. Contrastingly, a recurve's limbs, being thinner, will oscillate more, and are therefore, are less stable or consistant.
Howard Hill decribed the same bow dynamics when he said that he could shoot a longbow better than a recurve. I believe he has been quoted as saying that he "wasn't good enough to shoot a recurve well", although I bet Hill could have eventually figured it out:^)
Personally, I tend shoot my recurves more than my longbows - actually prefer the feel of the recurve, BUT I am a little more consistant with the longbow when shooting in awkward positions in the field.