Thursday, February 03, 2011

Eric Edberg Hits a Big Nail on the Head

The thing that is so stupid about current classical music training, and one of the cancers that has eaten away of the vitality of classical music, is that we’ve made composers and performers into different species. -- Eric Edberg
Granted, when you're busy writing something, it is difficult to keep in performing shape. Bach, Liszt, Paganini, Chopin, Clara Schumann, Mozart, the younger Beethoven, Fritz Kreisler, Benjamin Britten, and a whole slew of others managed to do it, but others like Paul Hindemith, lost whatever chops he might have had once he put more time into writing than practicing.

1 comment:

David Wolfson said...

Boy, you're right about that. I was recently asked to make recordings of some pieces of mine—for piano, which is an instrument I make most of my living playing—and I was dismayed by how much practicing was required. I'm afraid I cheated and made MIDI recordings, which I then edited profligately.

And then I was dismayed at how badly I'd been dismayed...