Re: composers playing their own concertos (was GG hagiography)

[Juozas Rimas <JuozasRimas@TAKAS.LT>]

> I couldn't agree more with what Jerbi wrote. An excellent explanation
> why certain works of art survive! If there's nothing "new" to discover
> in the text, then why bother. Gould's idea that any new recording should
> have something unique (and relevant!) to say about a work is another way
> of looking at this.

Well, I didn't mean to say that we don't need various interpretations by
various musicians :)

Do you think one needs to change a piece drastically, make it new, for it to
be called an interpretation? A performer, I believe, can produce his own
style without making radical changes in the composer's original ideas. And
by having the composer's own interpretation, we have *guidelines* for this
purpose.

Good for the carefully notated Romantic music but if you think such
guidelines wouldn't be fine in Baroque music, one should never say then that
a performer didn't understand a piece or something like that. Every
interpretation should be accepted, and valued exclusively on subjective
grounds.

Nevertheless I have noticed people mentioning "composer's intentions" in
classical music mailing lists way often. I have seen phrases like "Bach
wouldn't want to hear that played like this", "he didn't mean it when
writing it", "he'd turn over in his grave if heard this interpretation"
hundreds of times. And what about all the accusations of not taking repeats,
too much staccato because it "kills" the piece or "destroys its integrity"
etc etc?
So the authors of the phrases do not limit themselves to subjective
comments like "I didn't like the performer's approach". It seems the
composer's own interpretation would be quite useful in such cases to cease
the pointless debate.

Also, I emphasize that the composer should be very skilled with his
instrument for his own renditions to be worth attention. However, even he
doesn't play an instrument at all, his advice regarding tempo etc IMHO
shouldn't be disregarded completely because otherwise you're moving away
from classical music and entering the jazz realm...



Juozas Rimas Jr (not the one playing)
http://www.mp3.com/juozasrimas (oboe, piano, strings)