Aleg wrote:Simon, but where remains the music? The musical lines of the composition so often get obscured by this racing of notes and chords. Often I find it difficult to hear what the melodic lines are in the piece and what it is trying to convey.
Oh you're absolutely right, and for music I know well and admire, mere technique will never do on it's own. In fact, a performance designed purely to show off the player's technique will leave me, well, angry. I have plenty of examples from my own little world!!
However, I'm in such bewildered awe at the virtuoso piano repertoire and the inconceivable (to me) physical effort of merely playing the notes, that anyone who has mastered such repertoire and can carry it off in a flashy way instantly gets a certain kind of respect from me. It's more party trick than musical satisfaction, but I really can't help but admire it. Just the amount of work required to get those steel fingers boggles my mind.
I had this discussion with an Irish piano teacher when he moaned that the virtuoso stuff always got the big reaction in recitals, but the more musically satisfying stuff often wasn't so popular. I think that for the majority of casual listeners it's a simple case of:
"Hmmph, that doesn't sound so hard, I could probably play that myself if I tried, and this guy is meant to be a PROFESSIONAL?? My 8 year-old niece can play that."
vs
"THE PIANIST'S HANDS ARE MOVING SO QUICKLY I CAN'T EVEN SEE THEM, OMG, THAT'S AMAZING, I COULD NEVER DO THAT, HOLY CRAP HOW DO THEY DO THAT, I'D BETTER LEAP TO MY FEET SCREAMING BEFORE THE LAST NOTE HAS EVEN DIED AWAY."
