Appearance in German Breakfast TV
This morning I had the rather unique publicity chance to have a 6 minute appearance in the "Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen", the Second German Public TV-Station, a show with the highest attendance rating, and my slot was the best in that show...
I have played a number of important and unimportant concerts, but this kind of stress is completely different. First they picked me up at 7:10 am, 1h40 before I had to actually do my thing. Yes, little sound check, bit of make-up, but that took about 10 minutes. The rest of the time I had plenty of time to realize that this is something I haven't done much and might not be so good at. As a matter of fact, the last time I did it, I completely sucked...
Yes, I can be rather spontaneous and also funny, if I feel well and relaxed. In various radio shows I have proven to be pleasant interview partner, but in TV? People can actually see you while talking, they will watch every little inch of the face, arghhhh. Well, you can tell, I get rather self-conscious. The reason for me being there was actually on the one hand my newest cd (Hyperion Romantic Conertos Vol.II with among others the Schumann Concerto), and on the other hand my upcoming concerts with Berlin Philharmonic (also the Schumann Concerto).
We didn't mention the cd (which is fine, the cover doesn't look great anyway...), and he told me that I had been asked to join Berlin Phil when I was 23; this is obviously not true, so I had to correct that, which was a bit embarrassing, but hey, that's live TV. After some remarks about my endpin and parquet floors I was released and was allowed to play my little Rostropovich encore, out of which they faded away. Fine with me, another media-presence-experience which couldn't be much more shallow.
Why do you do it then? Well, good question - it has a lot to do with the fact that people tend to go more and more to "events" and to something they have been told is "good". Less and less people go to concerts because of Beethoven or Brahms, but because of Lang Lang or Nigel Kennedy. It doesn't really matter, what they play - if you are famous, people will want to see what you are doing.Do I want to be famous? I don't really care, all I want is to secure a career for the rest of my life, and if this forces me to do little marketing things, so be it, as long as it doesn't take too much time. Two hours this morning - I can live with that :)