As a pianist, when I was in my "glory days" (the 90s), playing European cities and doing the bigger international competitions for teens, my attitude was to let authentic emotion show, howver it came out. This is different, of course, from Inauthentic "showiness" done only for effect. The judges mostly ignored my display of emotion, sometimes commented positively,
and only one or two out of dozens made slightly negative comments. Now, after I recently did a recital fundraiser, the first thing out of at least three mouths was a criticism of "distracting movement, pretentious emotionalism." I was especially annoyed, by the comments because this was the first time I played the Liszt-Wagner Tannhauser Overture as a finale, and I associate that piece with my grandmother's death, as I first heard Tannhauser a month before she died. It seems to me that audiences, many of them non-musicians, are becoming more snooty than fellow classical musicians in judging performances. Wow.
2007-09-13
02:27:58
·
8 answers
·
asked by
Herbert Windt
2