> However, as for your second point re: the classically
> trained musician, isn't the problem that the classical
> music world is far too conservative? I know of several
> pianists who I never want to hear again, (Evgeny
> Kissin, for example) who seem to have garnered fame
> through a Richard Clayderman-esque talent for making
> everything taste of sugar or sound monumental (a
> perfect example of the complex Adorno speculated that
> players of Rachmaninov's sonatas must labour under).
Yes, Lebrecht has had a lot to say about the worship of star performers in the world of classical music. Listeners can become burned out on them, but the cure is simple: listen to someone else for a while. I don't burn out on performers, but I do on the music itself. At one point, I couldn't stand to listen to any Beethoven symphony, after overdosing on them. Fortunately, I recovered from that malady eventually!
> Meanwhile, I hear so many pianists at the Royal
> College that have so much more to say about the world
> than a lot of performers and would relish the
> opportunity to play on a bigger stage, much more than
> established players on a global junket (I have seen
> Mitsuko Uchida play on several occasions and she is
> either fantastic or simply mediocre. How is one
> expected to retain the same enthusiasm or freshness of
> interpretation when one is whisked around the word
> playing the same piece for large fees?). From what
> people have told me, unless you are young and
> marketable, it is hard to get a break: even
> potentially great musicians are being kept out of the
> limelight because they are too old (or, though it's
> not said, too ugly?).
Well, in the entertainment industry (in which professional musicians, like athletes, make their living), there are only so many openings for competitors to get the big bucks/euros/yen and the limelight and adulation, and everyone else, including equally talented performers, have to settle for the 2nd, 3rd, etc., ranks. Some become very bitter about that, and curse the unfairness of it all, and others accept it as an unavoidable fact of life and make the best career they can.
> Like every other industry, the classical industry is
> inclined towards conservatism; you are correct that
> there is always talent involved (you very rarely hear
> a wrong note played) but comparing Brendel or Pollini
> to Kissin or Pires is to see where the classical
> industry is going wrong; look at recent signings to
> EMI and you can see where it's going. Where is the
> experimental repertoire that would sustain it?
I think there are three groups of classical music fans; those who are disgusted by just about every work written after 1890 (there was once a guy I shared an e-mail list with who thought that European music went straight to hell after Monteverdi), those who are disgusted by just about every work written before about 20 years before the present date, and those who just like good music, whenever it was written (I belong to the third). Whether old music or new music succeeds in the marketplace depends on the relative sizes of these groups, and their purchasing powers. For the economics of classical music to work, the total number of fans (and their gross purchasing power) has to be big enough; if it is (and so far, it seems to be hanging on, just), which performers make a living and which don't depends on how the money the fans spend is distributed within the total. That's about the whole story, economically, as far as I can see.
What is more important to me is that more classical music fans get involved in learning to play instruments and share in the enjoyment of performance themselves (even though they are far from having the technical skills of the stars they worship). I try to encourage folks to become amateur musicians as much as I can. Most of the problems you mention, which a lot of fans fret about, tend to take a back seat when you play yourself, because you're having too much fun.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ After the Buddha died, people still kept pointing to his shadow in a cave for centuries—an enormous, dreadful shadow. God is dead: but the way people are, there may be, for millennia, caves in which his shadow is still pointed to. — And we — we must still overcome his shadow! —Friedrich Nietzsche