Comments on: Alone http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/ The glamorous life and thoughts of a concert pianist. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:30:09 +0000 hourly 1 By: Grebes http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2141 Grebes Tue, 25 Jul 2006 06:36:32 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2141 I don't think a composer can entirely specify the interpretation of the piece. And editors may have added a lot of what's on the sheet in any case. Personally, I dislike sloppy rhythm as a mode of personal expression. However the shape of the phrases, the loudness, speed of action, and whether or not it's connected to the other notes, offers huge room for personal expression. The pedal that lifts the dampers is often overused and sloppily used. Exact, sparing use of the pedal allows the pianist's imprint on the keys to be more clearly communicated...offers a more naked view of personal interpretation. Busy action and a multitude of rapid notes are more often well played, perhaps because they require little interpretation to be interesting, than the slow spare music. The opportunity to create a personal message in the spare portions of a piece is often underutilized. In the privacy of my own home, I feel free to pound out and repeat variations in the notes and rhythm. I really doubt the composer would mind such solitary pleasures. But a public performance is created out of the freedom within an established form. With types such as Bach Beethoven and Chopin having put down the forms such limits...to the extent of notes and rhythm constraints...are a blessing. Thank you Denk for great performances. For example July 14 Stravinsky. I don’t think a composer can entirely specify the interpretation of the piece. And editors may have added a lot of what’s on the sheet in any case. Personally, I dislike sloppy rhythm as a mode of personal expression. However the shape of the phrases, the loudness, speed of action, and whether or not it’s connected to the other notes, offers huge room for personal expression. The pedal that lifts the dampers is often overused and sloppily used. Exact, sparing use of the pedal allows the pianist’s imprint on the keys to be more clearly communicated…offers a more naked view of personal interpretation. Busy action and a multitude of rapid notes are more often well played, perhaps because they require little interpretation to be interesting, than the slow spare music. The opportunity to create a personal message in the spare portions of a piece is often underutilized. In the privacy of my own home, I feel free to pound out and repeat variations in the notes and rhythm. I really doubt the composer would mind such solitary pleasures. But a public performance is created out of the freedom within an established form. With types such as Bach Beethoven and Chopin having put down the forms such limits…to the extent of notes and rhythm constraints…are a blessing. Thank you Denk for great performances. For example July 14 Stravinsky.

]]> By: Bill Morgan http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2139 Bill Morgan Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:11:21 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2139 Rubinstein reflects on this topic<br/>http://tinyurl.com/kyt2y/<br/><br/>One of my favorite artists plays Chopin's piano and reflects some.<br/>http://tinyurl.com/j2yr4/<br/><br/>Those unfamiliar with youtube are in for a treat. Rubinstein reflects on this topic
http://tinyurl.com/kyt2y/

One of my favorite artists plays Chopin’s piano and reflects some.
http://tinyurl.com/j2yr4/

Those unfamiliar with youtube are in for a treat.

]]> By: winhut http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2138 winhut Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:16:21 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2138 Thanks for your words/ideas in "Alone"! I now understand why my mind did not/could not wander as you played Beethoven's ultimate last Friday; it was not mechanical Beethoven, but Beethoven living through J. Denk's heart and mind!! Thanks!!<br/>I would like to read your dissertation; please let me know year and institution. Thanks --<br/>winhut@web.de Thanks for your words/ideas in “Alone”! I now understand why my mind did not/could not wander as you played Beethoven’s ultimate last Friday; it was not mechanical Beethoven, but Beethoven living through J. Denk’s heart and mind!! Thanks!!
I would like to read your dissertation; please let me know year and institution. Thanks –
winhut@web.de

]]> By: Christopher http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2136 Christopher Mon, 17 Jul 2006 01:30:33 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2136 Physics has already accepted that the process of observation necessarily affects the observed. <br/><br/>While we can accept that our process of faithfully reproducing the composer's instructions will necessarily be different than the next performers', should that mean that we shouldn't do everything we can to try? Perhaps it's better to temporary suspend disbelief and go in with the attitude that today we shall "realize" the score rather than "interpret" the score. <br/><br/>Or perhaps I've just spent too much time around Gunther Schuller. (grin)<br/><br/>This doesn't mean that we have to see the score as sterile. In fact, it makes the score wonderfully sparse, like poetry, filled with different meanings, each one entirely correct. Physics has already accepted that the process of observation necessarily affects the observed.

While we can accept that our process of faithfully reproducing the composer’s instructions will necessarily be different than the next performers’, should that mean that we shouldn’t do everything we can to try? Perhaps it’s better to temporary suspend disbelief and go in with the attitude that today we shall “realize” the score rather than “interpret” the score.

Or perhaps I’ve just spent too much time around Gunther Schuller. (grin)

This doesn’t mean that we have to see the score as sterile. In fact, it makes the score wonderfully sparse, like poetry, filled with different meanings, each one entirely correct.

]]> By: Andrew http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2134 Andrew Sat, 15 Jul 2006 13:31:43 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2134 I have just been listening to a fascinating survey, on BBC radio, of Bach's Brandenburg concertos as interpreted through the ages. The changing attitudes towards performance were starkly exemplified by the different lengths of recording time for No. 3: Furtwängler took 15 minutes, Harnoncourt 12, and Musica Antiqua Köln 9. The presenter also commented that interpretations had become less romantic over time. (This reminded me of Artur Rubinstein's declaration that Bach was more romantic than Chopin.)<br/><br/>The point is surely that such notions - tempi and "romantic" - are subjective. And so it surely is too with the concept of "leaving it alone".<br/><br/>Except this difference: this concept is in addition a negative one and is probably marshalled by people wishing the performance they had just heard had not been played in a certain manner or contained what they saw as a personal idiosyncracy. Or perhaps it merely means, sometimes, that the way just heard is different from what the particular listener is used to, which could be a recording played over and over, thus instilling itself in their mind as definitive.<br/><br/>The truth is that the great works are so rich and complex that no single performance can possibly reveal all their depths. Accordingly, we should be grateful for a multiplicity of approaches, each of which reveals different layers or aspects.* And none of these will in any meaningful way have "left it alone".<br/><br/>By the way, Furtwängler (at the piano) playing Brandenburg No. 5 is quite superb.<br/><br/>Andrew<br/><br/>* Some egregious exceptions aside. For example, I recently suffered a Mahler symphony which the conductor had desecrated with an unbelievably vulgar gimmick. Yuck! I have just been listening to a fascinating survey, on BBC radio, of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos as interpreted through the ages. The changing attitudes towards performance were starkly exemplified by the different lengths of recording time for No. 3: Furtwängler took 15 minutes, Harnoncourt 12, and Musica Antiqua Köln 9. The presenter also commented that interpretations had become less romantic over time. (This reminded me of Artur Rubinstein’s declaration that Bach was more romantic than Chopin.)

The point is surely that such notions – tempi and “romantic” – are subjective. And so it surely is too with the concept of “leaving it alone”.

Except this difference: this concept is in addition a negative one and is probably marshalled by people wishing the performance they had just heard had not been played in a certain manner or contained what they saw as a personal idiosyncracy. Or perhaps it merely means, sometimes, that the way just heard is different from what the particular listener is used to, which could be a recording played over and over, thus instilling itself in their mind as definitive.

The truth is that the great works are so rich and complex that no single performance can possibly reveal all their depths. Accordingly, we should be grateful for a multiplicity of approaches, each of which reveals different layers or aspects.* And none of these will in any meaningful way have “left it alone”.

By the way, Furtwängler (at the piano) playing Brandenburg No. 5 is quite superb.

Andrew

* Some egregious exceptions aside. For example, I recently suffered a Mahler symphony which the conductor had desecrated with an unbelievably vulgar gimmick. Yuck!

]]> By: Kate http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2133 Kate Sat, 15 Jul 2006 02:40:06 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2133 Another astute observation, Jeremy. It's a difficult line to walk, interpretation. Go too far and you're liable to bypass what the composer intended completely; fall too short and the piece starts to sound the same as all the others. As a pianist, I struggle with it: how much is too much? What can I infuse of myself to make it mine, while still maintaining the original spirit of the composer? I often tend to err on the side of reverence for what's on the page. I suppose I'd much rather ensure that Beethoven sounds like Beethoven, and not Me with a Dash of Beethovenian Influence. <br/><br/>And speaking of festivals--what ever happened to the Pillow Festival? Have you any news to share on that front, Mr. Artistic Director Denk? :) Another astute observation, Jeremy. It’s a difficult line to walk, interpretation. Go too far and you’re liable to bypass what the composer intended completely; fall too short and the piece starts to sound the same as all the others. As a pianist, I struggle with it: how much is too much? What can I infuse of myself to make it mine, while still maintaining the original spirit of the composer? I often tend to err on the side of reverence for what’s on the page. I suppose I’d much rather ensure that Beethoven sounds like Beethoven, and not Me with a Dash of Beethovenian Influence.

And speaking of festivals–what ever happened to the Pillow Festival? Have you any news to share on that front, Mr. Artistic Director Denk? :)

]]> By: QED http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2132 QED Fri, 14 Jul 2006 18:55:54 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2132 Could there be an equivalent to "Reader's Response Theory in this portrayal of composer - score - performer? What about the possibility that the listener adds something to the ideas that make it different from what your triad tries to conceive? Wouldn't the listener be, accordingly, impossible to placate with such an idea as "leaving it as it is?" Could there be an equivalent to “Reader’s Response Theory in this portrayal of composer – score – performer? What about the possibility that the listener adds something to the ideas that make it different from what your triad tries to conceive? Wouldn’t the listener be, accordingly, impossible to placate with such an idea as “leaving it as it is?”

]]> By: Phillip http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2131 Phillip Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:51:52 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2131 "It is not possible to 'leave it alone,' no matter what we do... The piece, any piece, is funny and fluid; you cannot touch it without changing it." Here you've hit on the key. In defense of the "leave it alone" admonition, at its best that can mean simply "don't fight so hard, listen instead to what the music is telling you." How many times have we heard performances where it was clear the musicians were so anxious not to present "just another" run-through of a given warhorse, that their gimmickry was showing, shall we say? Some works have also become so laden with "shtick" moments, things that might be considered part of standard performing tradition, that to "leave something alone" or to allow a passage to flow naturally and undistorted might actually be a transgressive, innovative performance act. <br/><br/>As far as markings in the score go, over the years I've come to realize they fulfill the same role as statistics do in political argument. You can find any set of "facts" to buttress pretty much any political argument, and you can do the same for most any musical interpretative disagreement as well. I prided myself for many years on crafting unassailable rationalizations for making this or that interpretive choice, feeling that if I could out-debate my colleagues I might win the day. As I've gotten older, I've gotten more honest about the fact that usually I just like something a certain way because, well, I just freakin' like it that way! That of course has made it easier to be open to liking it in different ways, when I no longer worry as much about what I used to think of as betraying fundamental laws of musical physics. Thus, your method of simply demonstrating how you think of a passage is the most effective, I agree. “It is not possible to ‘leave it alone,’ no matter what we do… The piece, any piece, is funny and fluid; you cannot touch it without changing it.” Here you’ve hit on the key. In defense of the “leave it alone” admonition, at its best that can mean simply “don’t fight so hard, listen instead to what the music is telling you.” How many times have we heard performances where it was clear the musicians were so anxious not to present “just another” run-through of a given warhorse, that their gimmickry was showing, shall we say? Some works have also become so laden with “shtick” moments, things that might be considered part of standard performing tradition, that to “leave something alone” or to allow a passage to flow naturally and undistorted might actually be a transgressive, innovative performance act.

As far as markings in the score go, over the years I’ve come to realize they fulfill the same role as statistics do in political argument. You can find any set of “facts” to buttress pretty much any political argument, and you can do the same for most any musical interpretative disagreement as well. I prided myself for many years on crafting unassailable rationalizations for making this or that interpretive choice, feeling that if I could out-debate my colleagues I might win the day. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more honest about the fact that usually I just like something a certain way because, well, I just freakin’ like it that way! That of course has made it easier to be open to liking it in different ways, when I no longer worry as much about what I used to think of as betraying fundamental laws of musical physics. Thus, your method of simply demonstrating how you think of a passage is the most effective, I agree.

]]> By: Bill Morgan http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2130 Bill Morgan Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:58:46 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2130 I was present at Lakeside for that Schubert Trio last evening. It was an outstanding performance, by you, Ani Kavafian and Robert deMaine. It's difficult for me to express how the audience, too, shares in the moment. From my viewpoint in the third row, you seemed to be totally enjoying that particular reading. The piano part seems rich, giving you ample chances to 'interpret' the score. Listening to a CD of that performance, even a DVD attempting to capture the body language would fall quite short of 'being there'. Thanks so much for sharing that performance with me. And, for sharing your thoughts in this blog. It was the first time I'd managed to hear the cellist, I believe. I hope it won't be my last. Ani? I've heard Ani so many times since I lived in NYC in the 70s and she played with Tashi. She rarely disappoints. I was present at Lakeside for that Schubert Trio last evening. It was an outstanding performance, by you, Ani Kavafian and Robert deMaine. It’s difficult for me to express how the audience, too, shares in the moment. From my viewpoint in the third row, you seemed to be totally enjoying that particular reading. The piano part seems rich, giving you ample chances to ‘interpret’ the score. Listening to a CD of that performance, even a DVD attempting to capture the body language would fall quite short of ‘being there’. Thanks so much for sharing that performance with me. And, for sharing your thoughts in this blog. It was the first time I’d managed to hear the cellist, I believe. I hope it won’t be my last. Ani? I’ve heard Ani so many times since I lived in NYC in the 70s and she played with Tashi. She rarely disappoints.

]]> By: Steinwayliz http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2006/07/09/alone/comment-page-1/#comment-2128 Steinwayliz Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:06:47 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/?p=377#comment-2128 Enjoyed this posting! Now I remember why I read your blog. That was a wonderfully articulate and sensitive response to an empty comment which I usually dismiss out-of-hand--but you actually addressed it, and with all the right arguments. Enjoyed this posting! Now I remember why I read your blog. That was a wonderfully articulate and sensitive response to an empty comment which I usually dismiss out-of-hand–but you actually addressed it, and with all the right arguments.

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