The other day I was talking about piano-playing with some very good amateur pianists. As it happens, they were all high-flyers in other professions. A surgeon was saying ruefully that people don’t realise how much work it takes to be a very good amateur pianist, especially if time is short after giving one’s full attention to one’s professional duties. Often, the music they want to learn or play is difficult both musically and technically. Yet there seem to be many doctors who manage to be good amateur musicians, and many of them are impressively dedicated to their pastime.
We were laughing and saying that it’s a good thing there is no amateur version of surgery, where (for example) musicians who fancy that they could have been surgeons – had things gone a bit differently – could have a go at operating on a few patients on a Saturday, just for fun and for a glimpse into another kind of life. It’s just as well, we agreed, that some pursuits are only open to highly-trained specialists.
It occurred to me that perhaps the mistake we have made with music is that there is a professional version of it. Maybe all of us should be amateurs, or lovers of music as the name implies. Because life as a professional can become so convoluted when it starts to be a matter of ‘international standards’ and ‘pleasing the critics’ and ‘being the best in your field’ and all the rest of it. The era of recordings – with its editing-out of mistakes – has trained us all to expect perfection, and professional musicians expect it of themselves. We become addicted to the discipline of daily practice and sometimes forget that we started doing this in the first place because we were thrilled by music.
My favourite kind of musical performance is by someone who plays with the utmost skill and artistry honed by years of experience. Yet sometimes a performance by an amateur or amateurs can convey the joy of discovering music in a simpler way, with no pressure to ‘be the best’ – and all the better for it.
I am very glad to just be able to play for the pleasure of it. There is, as you say, a purity about that. I think composers have felt the same way – Verdi said he wept when he had to send Otello and Desdemona out into the world and they would never visit him in his work room again. It was be painful when that purity of art meets the harsh realities of life. But there it is.
“Can be” not “was be”. It’s the heat…
That’s very interesting Susan. I don’t know what to think about helping alleviate the very real pressure for professional musicians of the things you mentioned such as note perfect recordings setting the standard and having to contend with being the ‘best of’ etc Those handful of world renowned ‘Uber’ artists of the piano need nerves of steel – because it’s a long way to fall. But I think the note perfect thing has gone too far if as I read the comments on the recent Chopin competition , the public go on and on about the ’disaster’ when one competitor makes a minor slip!!! It’s outrageous because I listened to that performance and it was magical. I’m hoping that audiences discern well the difference and risk involved in live performance and only by attending live music do we build on the empathy and tolerance required to accept artistic risks and interpretations. I love that everyone can have a go at playing a music including the surgeons but I think it’s really best left to those like you to perform in the Wigmore hall ! One of my sons paid £75 to attend a country music gig yesterday which is cheap considering the lighting, venue costs never mind the artist … but a couple of months ago my other younger son was invited to play as a young artist at a professional concert as their guest ( they were prof classical musicians and he played
Fauré Theme and Variations.) there were grumblings among my friends about the £25 tickets ! All I could think of was the hours and hours he’d spent over the previous year learning dnd perfecting and memorising and thinking about it … ! I love your posts .
Orla, I share your feelings about ticket prices. People say it’s expensive to go to classical concerts, but in my experience the cost is nothing like the cost of attending pop concerts. I have been amazed by the prices mentioned by young friends who went to see big-name pop artists in the last few years. How can they afford it?
Like you, I put the cost of a classical concert ticket side by side with my knowledge of how much work went into preparing the programme, and I just can’t understand how things worked out this way.