Exaggeration in music (continuation from sugar and music)
As you could read in my blog I just posted I had another go at the Schumann Concerto in Seoul with the KBS Orchestra under Claus-Peter Flor. No, I don’t want to bore you anymore with the old subject of what do people expect and how much to “compromise” one believes in order to "please". But I had on this 55 minute journey from the hall to the airport and also during the performance (ts,ts,ts) some thought I wanted to share here.
While I completely despise the choreography some musicians put on during their performances I felt the need to reconsider my almost puritan attitude towards this subject. As the more faithful blogreaders of you already know, I have been criticized for not being emotional enough, by critics as well as by fellow-musicians (this being obviously behind-the-back-talk which I don’t mind at all, it’s in our nature of human beings :) ). When listening to my own performances I find them emotional enough and I came with an answer to that all in my previous blog “sugar and music” (or something like that - please don’t expect me to remember what I wrote before - I type real fast, and as soon as I thought something, it is out on the screen and thus out of my brain).
So today and last night I tried to find a healthy mixture between sticking with what I believe being musically “right” (if I ever knew!) and trying to underline whatever I am trying to say in the music making with movements which didn’t come totally by themselves. Did I corrupt myself? No, at least I don’t hope so, because the music stayed the same. I just tried to emphasize on what my musical intention was for those who listen more with their eyes than their ears. And while reflecting on the (for the Schumann Concerto) rather big success I didn’t feel dirty, because as a performer I am supposed to bring my point across, to express the feelings I feel in a certain piece of music. If a certain head movement helps to show how aggravated I feel a certain passage while also playing it angrily, it just makes it clearer, doesn’t it? Acting in music, how bad is it? How much are the performers doing it purposefully and how much comes all by itself? Well, it’s our secret, because the better the performer/actor, the more it looks real :)