Let the Music Speak!

Last night I attended a piano recital that was characterized by a diverse mix of repertoire, considerable technical accomplishment and a performer who didn't know the basics about giving a public performance. The worst parts were that he barely knew how to walk onstage, had little idea of how to handle an encore, was clueless about leaving the stage and simply could not shut up!

First, the repertoire. It was reasonably interesting and included Latin American pieces by Manuel Ponce, Astor Piazzolla, Carlos Fariñas and Leo Brouwer. Given the nationality of the artist, Cuban, this makes sense, but frankly, while the pieces had a certain charm, they were perhaps a bit too quirky and lightweight to occupy that much of the program--ten fairly short pieces.

After that set, there might have been an intermission, but the program carried on with the allemande from the French Suite in E flat, by J. S. Bach. The final part of the program was the Piano Sonata op. 111 by Beethoven, the last of his sonatas for piano and a wonderfully transcendent piece to end the program with. The last time I heard this piece in concert was in a performance by Grigory Sokolov in Bologna in May of last year, so that puts the bar rather high.

Several months ago I heard this same pianist in a similarly structured program which included the Piano Sonata No. 7 by Prokofiev (played very well, by the way) and I suggested then that the concert end with that piece instead of putting it in the middle. So last night's program was better organized in that regard.

Now for the problems. In my previous post I criticized the artist for talking before each piece. I don't know if he read that post, but it is likely as last night he offered a reason why he likes to talk to the audience. He said it was because he thinks that if he tells the audience something about what he thinks about the piece or how he approaches it, it will make it easier for the audience to appreciate the music. Au contraire, mon ami! There can be real value in prefatory remarks if they actually provide some substance, otherwise not, they are simply a kind of unthinking reflex. If they reveal something about either the music or the performer that is useful and humanizing, good. But last night, this was not the case and actually it is rarely the case! The placing of stumbling, ill thought out remarks before each group of pieces does nothing but distance the audience from the music. It places a screen of irrelevant verbalization between the listener and the music itself. Please don't do this!

What a performer should do and, in Europe, almost universally does, is walk out on stage, greet the audience with a bow, sit down and play. There should be no remarks of any kind which interfere with the enjoyment of the music and are usually simply misleading.

The spoken remarks were just part of the problem. At the end, after a pretty good performance of the Beethoven, the artist simply had no idea what to do. He got hold of the microphone again, thinking that he needed to make further remarks. No, no, no! Here is what you do: bow to the audience and walk offstage. If the applause continues you should return to the stage and bow again. Repeat as necessary. You might choose to do an encore. Instead, the performer made more stumbling remarks, bowed and played an encore. He never left the stage. Please, can we teach our young artists how to get onstage and, equally important, how to get offstage? And keep the stumbling commentary to a minimum or, better still, none at all.

I think the performer is a very promising young artist and these remarks are meant just to help him out.

A concert of music can be a magical experience, especially if it is pure music. Here, to show you how it is done, is Grigory Sokolov playing an encore at a concert in Berlin:

At no time in any of his concerts does he say a single word to the audience. Thank god.