Pianists are getting way out of control with their onstage showboating. (cough, Lang Lang, cough) So, thankfully, someone started talking about it. I don't have much patience for it -- a reason I've never gone to see Lang Lang in concert, and why I will vouch for Yundi Li even though he's an @$$ offstage -- but it's nice to see that Bernard Holland at the nytimes took note. <3 nytimes, <3 Bernard Holland. Musicians these days are so talented, and they're discovering and making use of that talent earlier and earlier; but, zomg do some of them not understand stage presentation. I have the utmost respect for well nuanced pieces, but like Holland makes reference to -- how can you expect to create the type of nuance needed for difficult pieces if you're too busy doing the macarena on stage? And I say this having gone through an awkward phase of "stage movement" after a summer with a bad teacher, so this isn't some unfounded critique of the musicians. You might be able to fake it well enough through overly bravado-ed passages of Liszt or Brahms, but you won't get very far in with subtle phrasing and color playing Chopin's Nocturnes or Ravel's Jeux d'eau rolling around on your bench like a playful river otter.
Rant, rant, rant. Nostalgic/happy post to come later!
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2 comments:
I'd rather see a pianist having fun on stage, rather than looking constipated on a piano bench. Now if Mr. Holland is only talking about recordings, then that's an entirely different matter. But then why would a pianist's physical movements be in a discussion only about recordings?
No one is trying to suggest that pianists have to be statue-still. The reason Mr. Holland is discussing movement, in a recording or a live performance, is because piano playing often requires much finer muscle movement than one would think to create delicate/appropriate tones. If you're moving excessively just for the sake of showmanship, you are (un)intentionally affecting the sound/music quality because you are using force where it may not be best for the piece.
It'd be like a theater scene in which a man and woman are sharing a quiet romantic moment. When the man makes an amusing comment, as opposed to giving an appropriate smirk or maybe even a "giggle," the woman starts laughing maniacally. Would you find that ill-placed? Or at the very least, soooo awkward? Mr. Holland, and I, are making the argument that excessive movement is essentially mood killer.
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