The questions today is, “Do performers make mistakes?” I am referring specifically to Classical performers. You see them on stage playing and it seems effortless and perfect, but do they make mistakes? There is a lot to this question because first of all, of course performers make mistakes and brilliant performers sometimes have train wrecks, but it’s quite rare. Usually what happens is there’ll be something that may distract the performer and they have a mishap, but unless you’re intimately familiar with the score, seasoned performers know how to hide the mistakes well enough to not disrupt the performance. It’s not just that they’re trying to make themselves look great, it’s also that they don’t want the audience to feel uncomfortable.
This is an important skill, but there is more to it than that because performers today actually do play scarily accurately. If you compare performers from a generation or two ago, some of the greatest pianists of all time like Alfred Cortot, Arthur Rubinstein to Artur Schnabel, there are countless recordings that were made years ago where you’ll hear mistakes often in pre-WWII recordings of great artists with lots of missed notes. It is important to note that these recordings were made before the advent of editing. Yet even live performances today are on a much higher level of accuracy generally than years ago. What happened and how is everybody playing so accurately today and what does this mean?
I’ve talked about this quite a bit and of course today it’s quite obvious everybody hears everyone because of the internet. Even before that we had a generation of musicians growing up hearing edited recordings that were note perfect. As a result, everyone is expected to achieve this high level and there’s a certain homogenization of interpretations and tempos as well as voicing and other aspects of performance because everybody knows how everyone else plays. There is a standard level that is accepted today whereas years ago there was much greater variety. It’s true that the accuracy of performers and the sheer technical mastery that so many pianists and other instrumentalists have achieved is awe-inspiring.
On the flip side there isn’t as much experimentation. When listening to historical recordings, made from 78 rpm records, performers often take chances and liberties that nobody would dare today. Occasionally they’d fall flat on their faces. But when they didn’t, they achieved highs rarely heard anymore. So, accuracy is important and it is important not to make an audience feel uncomfortable. But yes, performers do make mistakes even though they hide them extremely well! It’s not all about accuracy, is it? I’m interested in your comments which you post here on LivingPianos.com or on YouTube. It’s a great subject and I would like to know what some of you think about the great old performers and if the missed notes are too bothersome to where you’d rather have more perfect performances even if it sacrifices a bit of the wild expression! Thanks for joining me Robert@LivingPianos.com.