| Does the music matter?
The recent thread about the video of Hakan Hardenberger performing Mark-Anthony Turnage's (wonderful) From the Wreckage sparked an interesting conversation that is worthy of further discussion.
As Ed and others observed, it seems that the current fan-base for music is centered around the performer rather than the music itself. Ed asks:
"How many of us go to performances to listen to the players and how many go to listen to the music?"
It's an intriguing question that we should all consider and one I hadn't previously asked myself (though once I did the answer was obvious).
It also made me ask another question:
Can a great performer exist independent of great music? I remember hearing a perfect performance by a great instrumentalist of a piece which frankly should have never been added to anyone's repertoire (both will remain nameless). Despite the high level of performance, I was unable to walk away saying "that was a great performance" because the only part worthy of my attention was the playing. I'll reserve anymore commentary until this thread (hopefully) gets going.
-Matthew |