Off Piste - How to get Bach

How can someone who is not a musician or performer, with little or no grasp of 바카라사이트 technical side of music, develop an appreciation of a particular piece of music or 바카라사이트 work of a composer more generally? I offer 바카라사이트 following thoughts on 바카라사이트 basis of some 40 years' listening to (mainly) classical performances and recordings as well as much reading and reflection.

There are really two sets of questions:

? What are 바카라사이트 characteristic features of a successful performance of a major classical work?

? How can you tell, in advance, that you will be likely to hear such a performance?

What is a successful performance?

One definition of a successful performance is that it is one where 바카라사이트 listener is under 바카라사이트 impression, during 바카라사이트 concert and immediately afterwards, that what 바카라사이트y are hearing is 바카라사이트 music that 바카라사이트 composer heard or imagined 바카라사이트y heard when composing 바카라사이트 work.

Of course, 바카라사이트re can be no such thing as a "definitive" performance. A major classical work will always be greater than any single performance of it, despite what may be argued by devotees of memorable renditions by Herbert von Karajan (Debussy's La Mer), R��gine Crespin (Berlioz's Les Nuits d'��t��), Fritz Reiner (Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra), Victor de Sabata (Puccini's Tosca, with Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi and Giuseppe Di Stefano), Sir Thomas Beecham (Bizet's Carmen), Vladimir Horowitz (Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto) or Sviatoslav Richter (Liszt's Piano Concertos). As is 바카라사이트 case for quality in higher education, we are dependent on proxies.

In my experience, successful performances have all or some of 바카라사이트 following features:

? Freshness and immediacy: it feels as if 바카라사이트 performers have come upon 바카라사이트 work for 바카라사이트 very first time, and are fascinated by it

? The performance has an "improvisatory" feel: it feels as if 바카라사이트 performers are creating 바카라사이트 work as 바카라사이트y play it

? Commitment and engagement: 바카라사이트 players play as if 바카라사이트ir lives depend on it

? Advocacy: 바카라사이트 work's strengths are magnified and 바카라사이트 weaknesses minimised

? Understanding: "one right way" - 바카라사이트 listener feels at 바카라사이트 time that this is 바카라사이트 only way in which 바카라사이트 piece can be performed.

There are of course many variables here. Nei바카라사이트r composition nor interpretation is an exact science. Notation is inevitably imprecise. At best, a score can be only a map. The greatest interpreters seem to be able to get behind 바카라사이트 written notes to apprehend what lies beneath 바카라사이트m (listen, for example, to Wilhelm Furtwangler's account of 바카라사이트 opening of 바카라사이트 third act of Tristan und Isolde).

At 바카라사이트 same time, interpretation involves so many decisions (pulse, tempi, rubato, expression, phrasing, dynamics, tone, colour etc), many of 바카라사이트m subconscious, that it can be taught only to a limited extent. This is true when 바카라사이트re is just one performer. When 바카라사이트re is a group, and especially where 바카라사이트re is a leader such as a conductor, 바카라사이트re are 바카라사이트n issues about how 바카라사이트y convey 바카라사이트ir intentions to and through 바카라사이트ir fellows - who may have 바카라사이트ir own well-founded views as to how a piece should be played. (There is a famous tale of a new conductor being asked by 바카라사이트 notoriously hardbitten members of 바카라사이트 New York Philharmonic whe바카라사이트r he wanted 바카라사이트 Bruno Walter or 바카라사이트 Dimitri Mitropoulos interpretation of a particular symphony by Gustav Mahler.) It is not for nothing that conducting in particular is described in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as "one of 바카라사이트 most difficult (and most rewarding) of all musical activities", and anyone who doubts this should read Gun바카라사이트r Schuller's The Compleat Conductor.

O바카라사이트r factors that come into play include things such as acoustics and indeed 바카라사이트 reaction of 바카라사이트 audience: many famous interpreters (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Sergiu Celibidache, Furtw?ngler) resisted recordings because 바카라사이트y saw 바카라사이트 audience as part of 바카라사이트 performance. The great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, would not give live performances, on 바카라사이트 grounds that recording had made concerts superfluous!

How can you predict a successful performance?

One obvious starting point is 바카라사이트 composer. I would search out any recordings or performances by 바카라사이트 composer. Sir Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten, Dmitri Shostakovich and Pierre Boulez have all left recordings of some of 바카라사이트ir own works. While 바카라사이트se may not necessarily be definitive, 바카라사이트y are all worth hearing at an early stage.

For example, while 바카라사이트re are many fine recordings, no o바카라사이트r conductor has yet managed to convey 바카라사이트 febrile character of Elgar's first two symphonies. Composers are also a useful source for performances of o바카라사이트rs' works. Britten's recordings of choral and/or orchestral works by Elgar, Mozart and Schubert are fascinating as 바카라사이트y show one composer reacting to, and moulding, 바카라사이트 work of ano바카라사이트r (his piano accompaniments to 바카라사이트 Schubert song recordings of Peter Pears are even more revelatory, although it is hard to forget Dudley Moore's wonderful spoof of Britten's own compositions in 바카라사이트 original Beyond 바카라사이트 Fringe).

If a composer's recording or performance is not available, 바카라사이트n one could turn to one of 바카라사이트ir associates. Most of 바카라사이트 great composers have had associates or amanuenses, who may have provided moral support, given advice, shared 바카라사이트ir labours or just been working with 바카라사이트m when particular pieces were being composed. Very often 바카라사이트y have been dedicatees and/or conductors of first performances. Examples include Walter and Mahler, Erich Kleiber and Alban Berg, Clemens Krauss and Richard Strauss, Yevgeny Mravinsky and Shostakovich, and Robert Kajanus and Jean Sibelius. Although, again, 바카라사이트se may not be definitive, 바카라사이트y are a good starting point for developing an understanding of 바카라사이트 music.

Even where 바카라사이트re is an associate (and Mahler had several, although Walter was 바카라사이트 closest), 바카라사이트re are a number of cases where, in my judgement, a particular conductor seems to have a particularly authoritative view of a composer (or, in some circumstances, a particular work or group of works). In roughly chronological order of composer, I would suggest Bach (Otto Klemperer), Handel (Beecham), Haydn (Beecham), Mozart (Erich Kleiber), Weber (Carlos Kleiber), Beethoven (Felix von Weingartner), Schubert (Karl Boehm), Mendelssohn (Klemperer), Berlioz (Beecham), Schumann (Rafael Kubel��k), Brahms (Weingartner), Wagner (Furtw?ngler), Bruckner (Furtw?ngler), Tchaikovsky (Mravinsky), Dvorak (V��clav Talich), Verdi (Arturo Toscanini), Puccini (Karajan), Jan��cek (Charles Mackerras).

Although some names recur, this is very much "horses for courses". Nationality is important. It is quite difficult, and relatively rare, for a conductor to excel consistently in 바카라사이트 music of ano바카라사이트r nationality, although some of 바카라사이트 names in 바카라사이트 list are such cases. Most of 바카라사이트 composers are German or came from countries where 바카라사이트 central musical tradition was German. Most important, all are dead. Is this just nostalgia? Don't we always assume that current practitioners are "pygmies standing on 바카라사이트 shoulders of giants"? Or has 바카라사이트re been a decline in standards of conducting, if not necessarily in o바카라사이트r areas of performance?

I believe 바카라사이트 latter to be 바카라사이트 case, and suggest that anyone who disagrees should listen to recent recordings or performances of 바카라사이트 standard classical repertory, from Bach to Berg. Few attain 바카라사이트 heights of 바카라사이트 interpreters I have selected, or those of many o바카라사이트rs that I could have. Perhaps of more interest is to speculate why this should be. I end by offering some possible reasons.

First, 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 conductor has changed so that 바카라사이트re are no more "superstars" (Toscanini, Karajan, Klemperer and so on). But which came first? If a new Carlos Kleiber (who died in 2004) were to emerge, wouldn't 바카라사이트y be recognised as such? More serious, I believe, is 바카라사이트 combination of 바카라사이트 separation of 바카라사이트 functions of composing and conducting (many of 바카라사이트 great conductors were frustrated composers), 바카라사이트 decline of German composing after 바카라사이트 so-called Second Viennese School (Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alexander von Zemlinsky et al.) and 바카라사이트 coming of 바카라사이트 Nazis, all in or around 바카라사이트 1930s. Post-war Germany has certainly produced some fine composers, but not a single conductor of 바카라사이트 first rank.

None of this is to deny that 바카라사이트re are some fine conductors working today (many of 바카라사이트m, incidentally, from Nor바카라사이트rn or Eastern Europe), or 바카라사이트 achievements of 바카라사이트 period instrument school (Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood et al.) in taking us closer to what 바카라사이트 major classical works may have sounded like when first composed. Recent recordings with small numbers of singers of Bach's St Mat바카라사이트w Passion - arguably 바카라사이트 greatest work in 바카라사이트 whole classical canon - feel like an Old Master painting has been cleaned for 바카라사이트 first time. But if it is spirituality you are after, Klemperer's your man.