When was the last time you went to the symphony, willingly popped in some Mozart, or flipped to a classical radio station and actually stayed there? If you can’t remember, and if the thought of doing any of these fills you with dread-or worse, lethargy-then this article is for you.
One of the most common stereotypes about classical music is keeping new audiences, especially youth, away. It’s a stereotype that is sadly true in some concert halls and recording studios. To the average music fan who hasn’t grown up chained to his piano and theory textbooks, the general impression of classical music is that you can’t “get it” without background knowledge and study.
As a listener and performer of classical music for most of my days, I can tell you that this stereotype gives quality classical music a bad name. There is no need to understand classical music academically in order to appreciate and respond to it on an emotional level. No need at all. All you need is an open ear and, crucially, a performer who understands that more than half of playing and sharing music is in the expression of emotion, not the technical skill of the performer (brilliant as it may be). If a performer invests honest emotional energy into the music, every audience member-from the refined critic to the hip-hop-raised teen-can and should experience that emotion as a listener.
Take classical piano, that most ubiquitous and often stuffy example of the classical world. Everybody and their pet rock took piano lessons as a kid, so the tuxedo or evening gown-clad pianists playing delightfully quick and impressively difficult passages are interesting because of their advanced skill.
But if a performer focuses too heavily on flashy technique and too little on bringing some emotional weight to the piece, the audience will soon drift away. It doesn’t matter if the audience is made up of grade school children or the most educated classicists (though the latter group might not admit that such “refined music” caused their minds to wander). This emotional disengagement from the listener, the death knell for music of any kind, is too often found in modern piano recordings. The recording studio at its best cannot generate the energy of a live concert hall, and at its worst can deaden the sound of the instrument and dull the emotional force of the playing.
If you have been bored while listening to a recording of a “master” like Glenn Gould, or been at the symphony and found yourself thinking of tomorrow’s dinner during a Beethoven piano concerto, it probably wasn’t your fault. It also most likely wasn’t the music’s fault, though that is a more subjective area. If the performer is not employing all the tricks of expression and emotion along with her technical skill, then she cannot expect the audience to pay attention for very long.
For while classical music lacks the catchy beats of a modern pop song, it is full of vitality and spirit that should come across to the listener naturally, by virtue of the music alone. A little knowledge does help one appreciate a piece in its historical and musical context, but at its heart, classical music is no different than classic rock, or R&B, or whatever else draws you into the music instinctively. If played well and entered into with a willing ear, the music and the emotion should grab you without you even realizing it.
Of course classical music won’t grab everyone, just as rock or jazz doesn’t appeal to all, but I’d be willing to wager that, given a quality recording, many of you who would never think of yourselves as classical music fans would be hooked. The trick, especially in the aforementioned world of dry piano recordings, is finding such a quality performance. Many of the masters, while they still have their moments, seem to have lost a bit of focus and too often sacrifice emotional attention for the quick applause that technical brilliance brings.
Emerging pianist Antti Siirala is one of those performers who truly impacts listeners by combing emotion and technique into one powerful package. I recently picked up a CD of Schubert Piano Transcriptions recorded by the 24-year Siirala, and was quite impressed by the energy and immediacy the young Finn brings to his playing.
Any performer can play a tough phrase quickly, but it is the truly sensitive artist that can infuse every note of that phrase with emotional weight. It sounds silly or unrealistic, but this ability separates a well-executed run (a quick succession of notes) from a well-executed run that, in each note and interval, conveys fun, longing, and the myriad of other emotions that can and should be exchanged between performer and audience. Siirala’s music is always engaging and alive, a welcome breath of fresh air amidst the bland piano recordings often produced.
On this side of the Atlantic, American pianist Jonathan Biss is creating quite a stir with his debut album of Schumann and Beethoven works, including Beethoven’s well-trod Appassionata sonata. This recording, released on EMI, is full of personality and an attention to detail that rewards repeat listening. The 23-year-old Biss tells a story through his playing, taking the listener through sonorous, peaceful sections and playful romps with an unpretentious sensibility. Biss, trained at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, has taken his act on the road to many symphonies in the U.S. and around the world. His emotional presence ensures that he’ll be visiting many more before he puts away his metronome.
Not all emerging artists are worth listening to, of course-at least not yet. Young pianists with solid technical skills often simply lack the breadth of life experience needed to best communicate the composer’s intent. Some, like Biss and Siirala, have developed that balance between skill and emotion, while others will never quite manage it.
And, naturally, many of the ‘old hands’ still have an emotional trick or two left in them-Anton Kuerti and Murray Pariah, to name but two, play with great sensitivity and feeling when at their most focused, though listeners have to get past the flashy solo passages to find these meaty moments.
Classical music, especially purely instrumental music, is a powerful medium in that it has room for such a rich variety of emotion and expression. There are no words to cue an audience or CD listener as to how to react to a piano work, but if the performer is involved emotionally, she can cue the audience herself through the music. The music then becomes a two-way experience that all, including the classically “ignorant,” can share in.
Artists like Siirala and Biss have rightly sensed that audiences are becoming less tolerant of technically brilliant performances that lack in emotional clout. These young pianists and others like them need to keep their focus on bringing the emotional weight of classical music to bear in recording and in performance. For it is that emotional punch, still felt today after so many centuries, that will get and keep audiences listening.
