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Anna
List
Registered
User
Posts: 71
(9/8/01 7:26:06
pm)
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Competitions
Here in Munich, Germany, the International ARD Competition is being
held. I've listened to most of the cellists playing, and I have to
say, that the playing level is very high - and - very similar.
Nearly everyone is playing the same pieces in the same manner, and
in most of the competitions I've seen yet, the winner is the one who
plays the most popular works in the most "similar" way. So - what is
the effect? They are all wonderful cellists, why do they have to
show that they can play many pieces fast, loud? It seems to me, that
competitions are opposite to the idea of communication through
music.
Anna.
P.S. I hope you understand my "german"
english....
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JuilliardRock
Registered User
Posts: 15
(9/8/01 10:05:06 pm)
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I very much
agree
You know it is for that very reason that I have always stayed away
from competitions...I do think that at one point when these big
international competitions began they had the correct idea, that of
providing a platform, an opportunity for talented musicians to gain
exposure and prizes. but these days the first and most important
thing is a level of technical perfection, and if one isn't playing
with the accuracy of a machine all the time, he is voted out of the
first round. plus as you say there is the emphasis on being average
and in the middle. a wonderful example is with a piece such as the
haydn D-major concerto. this piece has always been played very
personally, some cellists playing it with cuts (an old-fashioned
thing which, in my opinion, makes the work a bit more concise) and
everyone adding his own little things here and there, grace notes,
changing passages just a bit, to give it a personal character. yet
at these competitions, they insist on the gendron, schott edition
which is the authoratative text as haydn wrote it without the
possibility of even the slightest deviation except in the cadenza.
it is really too bad since the piece would almost certainly not have
been played that way in haydn's lifetime.
anyhow, it is nice
to see i am not the only one who holds the opinion that competitions
create cookie cutter instrumentalists (certainly not musicians,
since truly unique playing is frowned upon in most cases).
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mvotapek
Registered User
Posts: 17
(9/9/01 12:44:07 am)
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Re: I very much
agree
...there's a Henle Urtext edition of the Haydn D out now...very
interesting comparison to the Schott...
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JuilliardRock
Registered User
Posts: 16
(9/9/01 1:05:03 am)
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Urtext
edition
Yes, I know. I've seen it. It may be "to the letter" what Haydn
wrote but that doesn't change the fact that a responsible artist
would necessarily have to adapt the actual text of the piece to suit
his own musical character which, in the context of these "by the
book," average, and politically correct competitions, wouldn't be
permitted. It is really too bad we have gone so far to this extreme
of being so concerned with authenticity, especially with music from
the classical period when so much of it was traditionally left to
the good sense and taste of the performer.
Too bad, I say.
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mvotapek
Registered User
Posts: 19
(9/9/01 12:28:48 pm)
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Re: Urtext
edition
You're preaching to the choir...i ornament shamelessly. I just
meant that contests and auditions used to specify Schott in order to
not have to deal with the rather lewd Gavaert version of the piece,
and now the Henle edition makes the Schott seem romantic by
comparison...maybe it will go full circle and the next "preferred"
edition will be an artist's personalized "realization" of the piece
once again.
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JuilliardRock
Registered User
Posts: 17
(9/9/01 1:45:18 pm)
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|
Re:
Urtext
I figured I was preaching to the choir!
It all seems like much
ado about nothing since most everyone these days seems to use one of
these new scholarly editions yet any performer of any artistic
interest makes his own changes. I must say, though, that in some
ways, I do still like the Gavaert edition. I learned it from the
Schott but Cole and I always made some of the cuts anyway only
because of the length of the first movement. Either way it seems
such a shame that we find ourselves in trouble for doing things
which were once so much a part of the style!
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