Klarinet Archive - Posting 001139.txt from 2000/10

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] A conductor/performer
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 11:28:52 -0400

> Not to beat this thread into the ground, but today I watched
> Perlman & Yo-Yo Ma playing Beethoven with Barenboim at the
> piano. The music was beautiful beyond words (IMO), but Barenboim
> was conducting 'part time' while seated at the piano.
> I have no idea whether an orchestra of that caliber needs real-time
> conducting; but from an audience's point of view, it was distracting
> **to the max** and downright unpleasant to see the piano soloist
> suddenly become a conductor, abandoning one body language for another,
> stretching to be seen over the piano, and then to switch back
> to soloist again.

I watched the same program, or at least most of it, and I believe the
orchestra was the Berlin Philharmonic. At least I thought I recognized some
of the players that I often see in this much-televised orchestra. The work
was the Beethoven Triple Concerto. Conducting from the piano or harpsichord
is something that is fairly often done in Baroque and early classical works,
but my observation is that it is less common in music as late as Beethoven.
In part, this is because the music tends to get more involved as the 19th
century progressed in such areas as changing tempos and meters, starts and
stops, etc.

I didn't find Barenboim's conducting to be distracting. If the
pianist/conductor is someone as talented as he is, I don't have a problem
with it.

What I found more distracting were the facial contortions of Perlman and Ma.
Yo-Yo tends to play in such a way that indicates that he can't bear the
smell of his cello, turning his head away from the instrument, putting his
nose in the air and adopting a facial expression that seems to signify
extreme distress. He and Perlman are also fantastically talented players,
of the genius category, so I guess we have to overlook such matters. If the
music is extremely expressive, deep and emotional, some facial expressions
indicating involvement in the music are to be expected. However, these two
players can contort their faces into expressions of extreme pain when
playing the most simple, straight-forward and matter-of-fact lines. It is
almost as if they are trying to outdo each other in the range and
grotesqueness of their expressions. By contrast, Barenboim seems almost
stoic.

I'm sure they are indicating, consciously or unconsciously that they are
deeply involved in the music. I would like to know whether such players as
Perlman and Ma could play as expressively without the extra-curricular
grimacing. It would be interesting to compare two recordings of them, one
with and one without the theatricals, to see if the difference could be
discerned.

I intended this message as a defense of Barenboim's simultaneous playing and
conducting, but it seems to have metamorphosed into a critique of excessive
extra-musical contortions. So be it.

Ed Lacy
**************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy, Professor of Music
University of Evansville
1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
telephone (812)479-2252; e-mail: EL2@-----.edu
**************************************************************

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