A new series of Channel 4’s ‘The Piano’ has begun. Judge Mika is still there, but Lang Lang has left the show and in his place is the multi-talented American musician Jon Batiste.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with the show, this is the concept: an upright piano is installed in a main UK railway station, and selected applicants are invited one by one to come and play it in front of the public. Before they play, we’re introduced to each performer’s ‘back story’, with interviews and filming that has taken place in their home environment. So when we get to hear them play, their playing comes across as a powerful blend of human story and piano-playing skill.
I was impressed by the judges’ ability to find something good, positive and appreciative to say about each person, no matter how advanced their piano skills were or were not. They were able to praise artistic achievement, but were also open to being moved by simple things.
Afterwards, however, I found myself thinking over the various performances and wondering how I would have assessed them if I hadn’t heard the tale of ‘the journey’. Of course, once I knew someone’s back story it was impossible to subtract it from my impression of their playing, but I suspected that if I had heard ‘just’ the playing I might not have been so sympathetic to the player.
This is perhaps because I grew up and worked in an atmosphere where back stories were not sought out. I’ve mentioned this before, so I won’t go on about it again, except to say that most of my colleagues had interesting back stories that might well have added to their allure as far as the public was concerned. They struggled with, and overcame, all sorts of difficulties. But nobody thought it appropriate to mention those stories. We all wanted to leave our real-world problems backstage and appear as calm and collected as possible on stage. We wanted to be known just for our artistic skill.
By contrast, in yesterday’s i newspaper, writer Jessica Duchen mentioned that some young classical musicians are gathering social media followers by telling tales of their off-stage challenges and adventures. ‘As music students’, Jessica wrote on X/Twitter, ‘we tried to hide our sore arms, stage fright and freezing fingers, but now a clutch of young musicians are building their online followings by showing the reality of the profession. And guess what? The audience loves it…’.
In my books about performing, I’ve experimented with lifting the curtain a bit on some off-stage challenges. But my experiments were very mild compared with today’s revelations. I can’t make up my mind whether it’s a good thing that young musicians are setting out to ‘tell it like it is’. Maybe it is.
Hello Susan
Thank you for this interesting post. I’ve just got some more of your books having loved your latest WOMEN AND THE PIANO, thank you so much for writing it and the beautiful concert you gave at the Wigmore Hall to celebrate this last March which my husband and I were privileged to hear. A very special concert indeed and you played beautifully.
on your topic here…
Difficult to know what’s for the best. My heart is often in my mouth watching and listening to my son as he plays publicly -a pianist at very early stages and just 19 and about to go to university. I see the work first hand that it took to get on that stage and the exhausting post concert analysis he puts himself through, the investment and his struggle to accept the performance despite audience enjoyment. He is so young and the bar is very high and he’s learning how to perform and everything it entails. Im not sure the audience needs to know that struggle. Like all musicians he is trying to express the composers intentions and convey the music. He would hate that to be compromised by anything that makes it about him I think. and yet the essence of performing is about what he has to say and his choices about how to best do that. I think it would greatly diminish the audience reception of the music itself to truly know the struggle is sometimes gargantuan even though they can hear and see that it probably is. Maybe I’m wrong. My own personal instinct is to recoil from performances which are very ‘emoted!’ Because I always feel that the performer has put themselves before the music and it puts me off because I get distracted by obvious visual affectations especially if it seems Florid . It’s unfair of me but it’s just how I am. If a performer is genuine and has overly physical affectations but the music sounds magnificent then I’ll take that, but probably with my eyes shut and my ears open! That young performers are sharing what is behind the scenes online however is interesting and maybe why not? But I think performance evolves with experience probably? As long as they can transmit that the post is a snapshot in time and part of a greater journey and don’t risk defining themselves by the ups and downs but see the bigger picture -It’s very interesting. Great post from you . Do keep them coming – many are reading I’m sure. Happy Easter.
Orla
Thank you Orla for your insightful comments about performing and learning to be a performer. You express so well the dilemmas facing every performer. I liked your observation, ‘As long as they […] don’t risk defining themselves by the ups and downs but see the bigger picture’.