Re: A more dramatic retirement from performing than Glenn Gould's!

[sara meneses <saralmeneses@YAHOO.COM>]

Hello

I think there are just too many things involved in
these kind of decisions. It could be that this pianist
really disliked what he did and wanted to finish it in
an spectacular showy way. But have you realized how
much pressure these people have? all the jealousies,
competition and no offense but, shity people they are
surrounded by? I mean music is the most awsome thing
but the people involved, the insecurities, constant
fears that someone else will come and in 10 years you
are not going to be the "fresh cool" new soloist or
what ever? and what about the critics?
It must be really stressful. But  I don´t think Glenn
would have approved of these events. Yes he didn´t
like concerts but he loved his piano. And he did music
his way.
And the comments about orchestra players, I only have
to say one thing: routine. Routine is not only in
music but in all careers and life. Our challenge is to
fight it, how, I wish I knew.

Sara.
--- Jon Windust <jon@COGNOLOGY.COM.AU> wrote:
> One of the things that really surprised me when I
> met members of our
> symphony orchestra is their lack of passion for what
> they are doing.  For
> many it was just a job and a bit of drudgery.  It
> just doesn't seem to tie
> in with the energy and the emotion of the music they
> play.
>
> This is anecdotal but I feel that the ones who lack
> the passion are those
> who were over encouraged by their parents to learn
> an instrument as a child.
> They have gone down the path of performing in an
> orchestra because that is
> their one skill.
>
> Jon
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Nessie Russell" <nessierussell@YAHOO.CA>
> To: <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 2:01 AM
> Subject: A more dramatic retirement from performing
> than Glenn Gould's!
>
>
> > I am sure most GG fans have seen this.  I am
> wondering
> > what people think of this.  We know GG had a
> distaste
> > for concerts.  What would he have thought of this?
> >
> >
> >
> > Agence France-Presse - 28 July 2003
> >
> >
> >
> > A French concert pianist ended his career Friday
> by
> > hiring a
> > helicopter to drop a worn-out piano into a lake in
> the
> > south of the
> > country.
> >
> > François-René Duchable played Beethoven's Third
> piano
> > concerto and
> > Saint-Saëns' Second to an audience of 2,000 before
> the
> > instrument was
> > consigned to the depths of the lake of la Colmiane
> > near Nice in
> > southeast France.
> >
> > He said he was retiring at the age of 51 to
> "change
> > his life", far
> > from tours with a perpetual eye on the time. The
> > gesture, he said,
> > was to show that everything was over, to get rid
> of
> > the weight of a
> > career.
> >
> > "It was a purification by water," he said.
> >
> > Purification by fire follows on August 31 at the
> > Provençal village of
> > Mazauges. Duchable will play at a festival whose
> > organizers have
> > been "friends since 1984" and will end the evening
> by
> > burning the
> > clothes he performed in.
> >
> > "I leave with a real exaltation, a great freedom
> for
> > what will
> > follow," he declared as he prepared to bury the
> > stage-life once and
> > for all.
> >
> > Duchable sees himself as a "man of nature" and
> never
> > liked his life
> > as a concert pianist, or the world of music, let
> alone
> > the public
> > that came to hear him.
> >
> > "How could I like one percent of the public since
> we
> > know that 99
> > percent of people have no access to classical
> music? I
> > cannot feel
> > love for a public that despises others. People
> think
> > being a musician
> > reflects a passion. It doesn't. My profession has
> > never brought me
> > happiness," he said.
> >
> > "My love of music has never been in question. I
> reject
> > money, the
> > tinsel, this rigid, dusty world, a whole system in
> > which I have never
> > been at home."
> >
> > Duchable said from now on he wants to "live a more
> > personal, tranquil
> > existence, rediscover calm and solitude," to
> divide
> > his time between
> > his beloved sport of cycling, pottery, about which
> he
> > knows little or
> > nothing, and perhaps learning other musical
> > instruments.
> >
> > "I want to do much more interesting things than
> keep
> > on doing for 30
> > years what I have been doing for the last 30."
> >
> > "I have held on for 35 years," he said, recalling
> his
> > first concert
> > given when he was 16.
> >
> > If he does return to the keyboard, it will be in
> > circumstances of his
> > own choosing and at his own rhythm, in hospitals,
> > schools, prisons
> > and asylums.
> >
> > The pianist said he might also cooperate with
> actors
> > and sound and
> > light artists to offer another approach to
> classical
> > music and plans
> > to conduct master classes in Switzerland and
> Paris.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
______________________________________________________________________
> > Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
> >


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com