It's been suggested (by Charles Rosen) that a pianist who plays difficult passages notated in Robert Schumann's piano music, to today's standard of accuracy, is not giving an "authentic" reading. No one in the early nineteenth century could have done it, so, the argument goes, "mistakes" would be part of "authenticity." (We might speculate on the impact the sounds made or make...) In Ghent, a year and a half ago at the Orpheus Institute, we … [Read more...]
Pianoscape
Plants form a plantscape -- more or less continuous -- across a continent: the carefully tended jardin and the yard of "weeds" surrounding an abandoned house. Fallen dead trees in a forest, or overgrown city lots might seem like problems in need of solving... Elite classical musicians have often held themselves apart from other musicians, or even other classical players: "I'm better that that." "His playing was so stupid," or "uninvolved," or … [Read more...]