Gidon Kremer: why I quit the celebrity ratrace

...but a time has now come in which the overall devaluation of the word “interpreter”
has resulted in a misguided fixation with glamour and sex appeal...

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/ ... trace.html


see also :

The Power of Classical Music - in the Past, Present and Future
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=1 ... 066&ref=ts

 

And what are you doing here besides posting random irrelevant links ?

 

Well, it's neither random nor irrelevant. Indeed Kremer is a violinist, but pianists need to be considering such issues too.

 

Maybe so. Perhaps no Verbier for you this year then ?

I still think this is a very strange way to join a forum though. I seem to be a bit allergic to people only posting links, whether relevant or not. It could be my problem. In which case I will happily shut up.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome . . .

I thought this could be of interest to you - what else .

To introduce myself:

There's not much to be said on this.
I love classical music and play the piano a little bit.
Other important aspects of my personality are to be found in posting such random irrelevant links

Hopefully you recon me as nice now.

 

You mean you're random and irrelevant ? :mrgreen:

I wasn't assuming anything about your being nice or not. Just saying that I find this a strange way to join a community. It reminds me vaguely of someone ringing your doorbell and shoving a bible under your nose. Sorry to be a bit cynical.

Sure your articles are interesting. So are zillions others on the internet....

 

Hello pianoclassic, I'd like to welcome you to Piano Society, and I hope you'll enjoy it here. I agree that the style of your first post was a little bit eccentric (and you need to know that we've seen other similar posts a number of times from spammers, that's why people are a little suspicious). But I did find the link interesting, and I hope you'll be joining in some of the other conversations around the place. I don't care how old you are or where you live, as long as you're contributing something here and getting something out of being here.

Best wishes,

Alexander

 

I just read that letter written by Mr. Kremer. I could understand well how he feels. The classical music world needs the conscience, intelligence and courage like his. Thank you for posting!

 

One thing in it that struck a chord with me was the image thing...particularly the sex appeal aspect of it. I was watching a video on YouTube of a pianist playing a popular piece. I'd never heard of her before (and I can't recall her name), but I gather she is at least somewhat popular. She was very beautiful and dressed in sexually provocative clothing - nothing particularly wrong with that IMO. She played very well, or I might feel differently about it. What I found disturbing is that so many of the comments compared her to Valentina Lisitsa - not her appearance, but her playing. Lisitsa has recorded the same piece, but as pianists they have almost nothing in common (Lisitsa's technique is superior, and IMO the other woman's interpretation was superior). So why not compare her with other interpreters, like Sokolov and Arrau, etc.? So I explained it away in my mind as being a product of the YouTube arena, which is not known for being particularly high-brow, but apparently it's something of a problem in high-brow arenas as well, and truth be told I'm not convinced that's a new thing. Take Franz Liszt, for example. He was a sex god and a crowd-pleaser to boot. No doubt he could be a tasteless musician from time to time, especially in his youth, but he was a virtuoso, arguably unparalleled, so it's hard to say that he built his career on that image (even though I think it probably helped). Sex idols in the piano world are unusual, but the opera has always favored crowd-pleasers, and musicianship has always been but one part of that.

 

Post the link, dammit ! :lol:

 

Can't you see I'm trying to be lazy? lol...I found it, though, just for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n4sP8r0ZUk

(Lola Astanova)

 

Thanks 8)
I don't find her particularly beautiful or sexy though. She certainly can churn out a million notes a minute
without puting one finger wrong (can't they all, these days). But I sampled some more of her Youtube
stuff and it seems rather shallow and indifferent to me.

 

I didn't listen to anything else by her. I just don't think much of Lisitsa's interpretation. :wink: Lola at least put some feeling into it. But she did put a few fingers wrong. Not many, but a few...

 

Hi pianoclassic,

don't run away! They just want to give you a hug!
You have to know that this forum has become kind of a "family thing" over the years, where the major contributors (a handful of people) all want to be buddies. I have never introduced myself here and have never used my real name on the forum. So what? If you're not the family guy just ignore it and keep on posting. Otherwise open a new thread with your CV and the story of your life.

@PS admins: No offense, but don't you think you're just a tiny bit aggressive here?