At what point should a professional concert violinist deem himself
worthy of IMPROVING upon Beethoven's concerto? Surely, he should be
able to play the concerto perfectly, before taking it upon himself to
compose and perform his own cadenzas--the first movement, the gap
before the rondo, dand the cadenza in the rondo--yes???
Tonight I paid top-dollar for excellent seats at the local symphony
to see Brahms Symphony 3 and B's Concerto. The Symphony was fine,
and generally speaking, the B performance by the orchestra was the
best B playing I can recall of theirs in years.
But the soloist, one Joshua Bell, a 32 Y.O. American who has been
the dandy of the American media as much as any classical musician has
been recently, WRECKED the concerto for me. It would have been one
thing for JB to have over-acted his part--swinging and swaying to the
orchestral passages, emphasizing his every note with lurching,
etc.--if he had played the parts well. But...all his over-acting
seemed to cause him to squeak notes a few times, and his attempts to
dramatize certain passages for effect by speeding up the start of a
run up a scale didn't work, because his subsequent slowing down to
keep in time with the orchestra just flopped.
But that's not all. This dandy (sorry, the image of Beethoven's
dandy brother discussed here recently just wouldn't leave my mind)
thought that his cadenzas were sufficiently good to replace B's.
I'm sorry that I'm at a loss to describe them, except to say that
they ANGERED me. I didn't want to hear this kid's ideas of what
B would want us to hear with his concerto. All the showing off at
the expense of the masterpiece...very disappointing.
Of course, the audience leapt to their feet IMMEDIATELY at the end,
and the ovations included whistles and shouts. We remained seated,
probably the only people who did so in the entire first row.
I have seen other lesser-known performers do a better job of the
concerto, who didn't improvise, who didn't think they should try to
deliver a different or better message than B provided.
How often do performers improvise B's cadenza's?
Sorry for rambling...
NP: The Complete Overtures/Masur/Philips
worthy of IMPROVING upon Beethoven's concerto? Surely, he should be
able to play the concerto perfectly, before taking it upon himself to
compose and perform his own cadenzas--the first movement, the gap
before the rondo, dand the cadenza in the rondo--yes???
Tonight I paid top-dollar for excellent seats at the local symphony
to see Brahms Symphony 3 and B's Concerto. The Symphony was fine,
and generally speaking, the B performance by the orchestra was the
best B playing I can recall of theirs in years.
But the soloist, one Joshua Bell, a 32 Y.O. American who has been
the dandy of the American media as much as any classical musician has
been recently, WRECKED the concerto for me. It would have been one
thing for JB to have over-acted his part--swinging and swaying to the
orchestral passages, emphasizing his every note with lurching,
etc.--if he had played the parts well. But...all his over-acting
seemed to cause him to squeak notes a few times, and his attempts to
dramatize certain passages for effect by speeding up the start of a
run up a scale didn't work, because his subsequent slowing down to
keep in time with the orchestra just flopped.
But that's not all. This dandy (sorry, the image of Beethoven's
dandy brother discussed here recently just wouldn't leave my mind)
thought that his cadenzas were sufficiently good to replace B's.
I'm sorry that I'm at a loss to describe them, except to say that
they ANGERED me. I didn't want to hear this kid's ideas of what
B would want us to hear with his concerto. All the showing off at
the expense of the masterpiece...very disappointing.
Of course, the audience leapt to their feet IMMEDIATELY at the end,
and the ovations included whistles and shouts. We remained seated,
probably the only people who did so in the entire first row.
I have seen other lesser-known performers do a better job of the
concerto, who didn't improvise, who didn't think they should try to
deliver a different or better message than B provided.
How often do performers improvise B's cadenza's?
Sorry for rambling...
NP: The Complete Overtures/Masur/Philips
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