A good performance is one that moves me. But it is not only the passion and emotion expressed in a performance that move me, it is also allowing the clarity of the structure, as well as the different characters, to shine through, a well-judged balance, a sense of architecture of the whole piece and, at the same time, a sense that it unfolds naturally from the first note to the last.
Mihai Ritivoiu, Romanian pianist.
“Young Artist Interview: Mihai Ritivoiu”, The Musicians’ Company, https://wcom.org.uk/news/yeoman-interview-mihai-ritivoiu/, accessed 21 February 2021.
A good performance
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Imagination
“Imagination decides everything: it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the world’s supreme good.” – Pascal Blaise, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. C. Prendergast, A history of modern French literature: from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2017, p. 237.
Mozart on Craft“People are mistaken, if they think that my art has come easily to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has devoted so much effort in the study of composition as have I. There is scarcely a famous master in must whose works I have not diligently, and often repeatedly, studied.” – Mozart, in […]
Boyd Neel on Vaughan William’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas TallisBoyd Neel was the first conductor to record Vaughan William’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis in 1935. He wrote: I often feel that this wonderful work is perhaps the greatest of all achievements in string orchestral composition. Boyd Neel (1986) The Story of an Orchestra. London: Vox Mundi, p.22. Cited in: Holmes, John […]
The price of an encoreAt a concert in London in December 1911, Rachmaninoff was received to great acclaim: perhaps a little too much from the orchestra's view point, who wanted to play the rest of their program: The London Philharmonic Concert given on November 7, provided an object lesson in this study of the relation of applause to encores. […]
Music is richer than words“If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music.” Jean Sibelius, in an interview with Berlingske Tidende, 10th June 1919. Cited at: www.sibelius.fi […]
The inner drama of manIt is not what the artist does that counts. But what he is. Cézanne would never have interested me if he had lived and thought like Jaques-Emile Blanche, even if the apple he had painted had been ten times more beautiful. What interests us is the anxiety of Cézanne, the teaching of Cézanne, the anguish […]
The tragedy of music“The tragedy of music is that it begins with perfection.” – Morton Feldman, American composer. Cited in a May 1976 interview, Studio International, November 1976, pp. 244-248.
Beethoven’s duetBeethoven was premiering his piano duet, March (op. 45) with duet partner Ferdinand Ries. When a young count spoke loudly to a lady friend in the room next door, Beethoven jumped up and shouted “I will not play for such swine.” Source: Arganbright, Nancy (2007) “The Piano Duet: A medium for Today”, The American Music […]
The making of heroes and cowards“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men.” – Brooke Westcott, Bishop of Durham, scholar, theologian Cited at Quotations Book
The best music“The best music is the music that persuades us that there is no other music in the world.” – Alex Ross, music critic Cited in: Ross, Alex, “From Classical to punk”, Limelight, January 2011, p.29.