Enjoying the virtuoso

Recently I read a book entitled "The Listener's Guide to Great Instrumentalists" by David Hamilton, and found another perspective on performance that dovetails beautifully with what I believe, and adds a perspective unique to the performing musician.  Let me quote from the introduction.

A musical performer engages simultaneously in several activities.  Although, as with any such abstract schematization, the boundaries are not always clear-cut, we might distinguish three such activities: execution, interpretation, and projection.  The relate, respectively, to the instrument, the musical work, and the listener.  The performer must have sufficient command of the instrument to execute the music that has been written for it.  He must understand that piece he is playing, must have (at least instinctively, not necessarily in a verbally articulate form) a conception of its shape and its sense.  And finally, he must communicate that conception, and a sense of his own involvement in the whole process, to the audience.

I think that's a pretty good summary of what's involved in stage performance - essentially technique and virtuosity, understanding at the level of emotional meaning, and the ability to project that meaning (or in some cases that technique) to the audience.

My general belief is that performers should "swing for the fences" and communicate something important or at least enjoyable at an emotional level, but the book reminds me that this is not the only option.  It's quite reasonable for a performer to show off their virtuosity and be appreciated for that skill alone.  Not every mode of performance allows this kind of approach.  Nobody cares if they are watching a "great actor" - in fact that concept can only distract from the great acting that (we hope) is going on.  But in the musical realm, there are lots of people who would pay twenty bucks just to see someone who has an amazing command of an instrument.  Chiefly I'm speaking of people who also play that instrument.  :)  It's like being impressed with a guy who can bowl a 300 game - it may not touch you at an emotional level, but being impressed is still an experience that has value.

There is a name for a piece that is written to show off skills.  It's called an "étude" which translates to "study" in English.  Chopin produced many such pieces, each focusing on a particular piano skill, like the ability to play a lot of notes very quickly, or to play chords that are spread beyond the reach of a normal hand, or to play a different time signature with each hand.  That can be amazing to watch!  However I believe that for enduring listening pleasure, we gravitate towards works that have more depth.  I'm not a person with an encyclopedic knowledge of piano pieces, but I love to listen to "Claire de Lune" or Chopin's "Raindrop Prelude" because those pieces seem to deliver the emotional depth that I crave in performance.  Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# Minor" is another of my favorites because of it's passion.