Playing with Historical Masters
A sort of strange but really interesting project this week! Some of our earliest "recordings" that we use in Early Music are old piano rolls that were set using the performances of piano masters from the turn of the century. In those rolls, these masters are playing works of the late Romantic era, and it is quite amazing how different these performances are compared to modern-day "Classical" performances.
I've said it many times before, but at some point, "Classical" music lost its way and became something quite different. Even in the early 20th century and the late Romantic era... well, performances were quite different, and completely different things were valued highly... and definitely not what is valued in modern "Classical" music!
... and with the digitisation of some of these piano rolls and the development of grand pianos that can replay the digital instructions... well, you have a glimpse into the past! And these piano rolls incorporated quite a great deal of nuance as they were attached to pneumatic machines that were able to control the timbre of sound and not just punch out notes!
Anyway, this last week... we were rehearsing with one of these masters... to prepare for a performance of a Chopin piano concerto with period instruments accompanying this piano!
And wow... it is such a heart-rending recording to play with.... lots of tempo changes, they obviously had different ideas of how this worked... and such a great connection with using time to shade things! Amazing! Funnily enough, the person who is "conducting" us... well, he mentioned that it was much more difficult with the symphony orchestra musicians... well, they have a very different approach to music than we Early Music people do...
... and it does mean that it all reinforces my view that all of historical music had much more in common with jazz, folk, and pop... and modern "Classical" music is an unwelcome aberration.
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This is my first tike hearing chopin since I watched the anime My Lie In April....
I was curious about the artist and his piece since then yet hadn't listened to it...
I'll give it an ear..
It is music that is much later than what I'm normally playing, but the chance to do it in a historically informed way was just too interesting!
Very interesting. I guess I never thought of classical music as a genre that would have lost its way. Though I don't listen to a ton of classical music in general. I do like Chopin though. I remember I have a Chopin CD kicking around somewhere. I don't know who was preforming it though.
Oh yes, the genre stifled itself into being an 'art' instead of remaining as entertainment around the mid 20th century. With that came the focus on unimportant things.. And the loss of skills like improvisation.
As a fan of Jazz I can definitely appreciate improvisation!
Well I never knew that. It does make sense though
Very interesting thought, but in a way all jazz and modern music took elements from the classical in creating music as well. Chopin was a great composer! That is cool to play it in a more modern way, very interesting!
Ah yes, jazz, pop, and classical have much more in common historically... But classical took a different turn in the mid 20th century and lost a lot of techniques and skills that are common in every other firm of music.. And exchanged it for a focus on... Well, not sure, nothing important!