THE MUSIC SALON: classical music, popular culture, philosophy and anything else that catches my fancy...
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Performance Stress
There is a lot in the news this week from the Olympic Games about performance stress and it reminds me of my experience years ago with a big guitar competition. I forget the exact year, but back in the 1980s when I was working very hard to build a career as a concert soloist the perfect opportunity came along, or so it seemed. An international Segovia competition was announced, to be held in London with Andrés Segovia himself as the chair of the jury. In order to be accepted for entry you needed a recommendation from some well-known figure in the guitar world. After my Wigmore Hall debut a few years before I had become friends with the English critic and composer John Duarte who wrote me an excellent letter of recommendation so the door was open for me.
This was a brutally demanding competition! In most cases there are one or two set pieces with the rest to be chosen by the competitors--not in this case. All the pieces but one were required. My optional piece was going to be the Rossiniana op 119 by Giuliani, all the others I had to learn, mostly from scratch. Here is the list as I recall it:
Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, Bach
Sonata, Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Fantasia para un Gentilhombre, Rodrigo
Concierto del Sur, Ponce
a couple of other pieces I have forgotten
This was a bit of bad luck for me as they were mostly pieces I had not learned. For example, I knew the First and Fourth Lute Suites by Bach, but not the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro. I knew the Sonata romantica by Ponce, but not the Sonata by Tedesco. I had performed the Rodrigo, so that was good, but not the concerto by Ponce. I only had eight months or so to learn all this music. And not just learn it, but master it to the perfection demanded by an international competition.
So I worked very, very hard and got about 80% of it memorized and was starting to polish the technique. Then I had a nervous breakdown, broke up with my girlfriend and quit my teaching job. It took me a couple of years to recover and start to rebuild my career.
The competition was held in the Fall and I didn't follow it at the time because I was busy with my own mental health. But a long time later I heard what had happened. Oh, I haven't mentioned the rewards. You were going to be instantly a very famous player with televised recitals, concerto performances, a hefty purse of prize money, tours and so on. A magical career with the imprimer of Segovia, the great master of the guitar. So what happened? The winner was a Japanese guitarist whose name I forget. He also had a nervous breakdown, but after the end of the competition. After returning to Japan he purposely injured his hand so he could never again play the guitar. A sad finale.
The pressures of competition are enormous and they tend to accumulate over time. In my case I stepped away from the guitar for a year and then rebuilt my technique and mental toughness from scratch. And I did so successfully as I went on to do many CBC broadcasts including live performances of the Villa-Lobos concerto and the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo with orchestra.
So I have the deepest sympathy for those athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka who crumbled under pressure. The need for psychological toughness is just as important as the need for physical strength and agility. I can't imagine the kind of pressure that competing in the Olympics puts on you.
Funny Bryan, but even before your narrative took us to your own withdrawal from the competition, I was already returning in my mind to a familiar refrain when I consider the absurdity of competition in music...that is NOT what music is about! Even the local fiddle competition turns me off. It always reminds me that Walt Whitman poem "When I heard the learn'd astronomer". And even funnier, my brother is a professional astronomer and somehow never lost the enchantment of looking at the stars. Nor have you, Bryan, lost the enchantment of music. Think of how Frank Zappa despised the critics and the record companies and radio stations...true artists and astronomers are not mere opportunists nor even competitors.
The year 1717 gave our Bach, already so famous, a new opportunity to achieve still further honor. Marchand, the clavier player and organist famous in France, had come to Dresden and let himself be heard by the King with exceptional success, and was so fortunate as to be offered a highly paid post in the Royal service. The concertmaster in Dresden at the time, [Jean-Baptiste] Volumier, wrote to Bach, whose merits were not unknown to him, at Weymar, and invited him to come forthwith to Dresden, in order to engage in a musical contest for superiority with the haughty Marchand. Bach willingly accepted the invitation and journeyed to Dresden. Volumier received him with joy and arranged an opportunity for him to hear his opponent first from a place of concealment. Bach thereupon invited Marchand to a contest, in a courteous letter in which he declared himself ready to execute ex tempore whatever musical tasks Marchand should set him and, in turn, expressed his expectation that Marchand would show the same willingness—certainly a proof of great daring. Marchand showed himself quite ready to accept the invitation. The time and place were set, not without the foreknowledge of the King. Bach appeared at the appointed time at the scene of the contest, in the home of [Joachim Friedrich Count Flemming,] a leading minister of state, where a large company of persons of high rank and of both sexes was assembled. There was a long wait for Marchand. Finally, the host sent to Marchand’s quarters to remind him, in case he should have forgotten, that it was now time for him to show himself a man. But it was learned, to the great astonishment of everyone, that Monsieur Marchand had, very early in the morning of that same day, left Dresden by a special coach. Bach, who thus remained sole master of the scene of the contest, accordingly had plentiful opportunity to exhibit the talents with which he was armed against his opponent. And this he did, to the astonishment of all present. The King had intended to present him on this occasion with 500 talers[…]”
Excerpt From Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Norton Paperback) Christoph Wolff
Anonymous, you bring out a great example of musical contest,an episode also recounted in James Gaines' book "Evening In the Palace of Reason". And perhaps for the very highest musical talents, these contests might offer some inherent attraction, though usually also some ego or position seems part of the mix. But consider also that Bach's actual fame does not rest on winning contests, but rather his compositions and overall "astonishment" of audiences. When I was much younger and dabbling in learning to play rock guitar, I subscribed to some guitar magazines always featuring articles on great contemporary virtuoso players who I had usually not heard of. So I bought a few CDs and understood why their speed and dexterity were discussed. But the music itself I never much cared for. The overall musicality will always trump technical virtuosity. Bach obviously had both!
5 comments:
Funny Bryan, but even before your narrative took us to your own withdrawal from the competition, I was already returning in my mind to a familiar refrain when I consider the absurdity of competition in music...that is NOT what music is about! Even the local fiddle competition turns me off. It always reminds me that Walt Whitman poem "When I heard the learn'd astronomer". And even funnier, my brother is a professional astronomer and somehow never lost the enchantment of looking at the stars. Nor have you, Bryan, lost the enchantment of music. Think of how Frank Zappa despised the critics and the record companies and radio stations...true artists and astronomers are not mere opportunists nor even competitors.
I agree: the whole idea of music competitions leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The guitarist John Williams has expressed similar sentiments.
From JS Bach “Obituary:
The year 1717 gave our Bach, already so famous, a new opportunity to achieve still further honor. Marchand, the clavier player and organist famous in France, had come to Dresden and let himself be heard by the King with exceptional success, and was so fortunate as to be offered a highly paid post in the Royal service. The concertmaster in Dresden at the time, [Jean-Baptiste] Volumier, wrote to Bach, whose merits were not unknown to him, at Weymar, and invited him to come forthwith to Dresden, in order to engage in a musical contest for superiority with the haughty Marchand. Bach willingly accepted the invitation and journeyed to Dresden. Volumier received him with joy and arranged an opportunity for him to hear his opponent first from a place of concealment. Bach thereupon invited Marchand to a contest, in a courteous letter in which he declared himself ready to execute ex tempore whatever musical tasks Marchand should set him and, in turn, expressed his expectation that Marchand would show the same willingness—certainly a proof of great daring. Marchand showed himself quite ready to accept the invitation. The time and place were set, not without the foreknowledge of the King. Bach appeared at the appointed time at the scene of the contest, in the home of [Joachim Friedrich Count Flemming,] a leading minister of state, where a large company of persons of high rank and of both sexes was assembled. There was a long wait for Marchand. Finally, the host sent to Marchand’s quarters to remind him, in case he should have forgotten, that it was now time for him to show himself a man. But it was learned, to the great astonishment of everyone, that Monsieur Marchand had, very early in the morning of that same day, left Dresden by a special coach. Bach, who thus remained sole master of the scene of the contest, accordingly had plentiful opportunity to exhibit the talents with which he was armed against his opponent. And this he did, to the astonishment of all present. The King had intended to present him on this occasion with 500 talers[…]”
Excerpt From
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Norton Paperback)
Christoph Wolff
Oh yes, the one guy in all of music history that you definitely do not want to get into a fugueing contest with was J. S. Bach!
Anonymous, you bring out a great example of musical contest,an episode also recounted in James Gaines' book "Evening In the Palace of Reason". And perhaps for the very highest musical talents, these contests might offer some inherent attraction, though usually also some ego or position seems part of the mix. But consider also that Bach's actual fame does not rest on winning contests, but rather his compositions and overall "astonishment" of audiences. When I was much younger and dabbling in learning to play rock guitar, I subscribed to some guitar magazines always featuring articles on great contemporary virtuoso players who I had usually not heard of. So I bought a few CDs and understood why their speed and dexterity were discussed. But the music itself I never much cared for. The overall musicality will always trump technical virtuosity. Bach obviously had both!
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