Monday, August 30, 2010

An eminent scholar referred in a study on Mozart to the way amateurs massacre certain of his works. I don't think it's their fault. I blame the instrument teachers who cannot distinguish between music that is technically easy to play and music that is profoundly transparent. I am thinking of those "easy" Mozart sonatas and of Schumann's Fantasy Pieces--given routinely to intermediate level clarinetists and cellists, though they are among the most sophisticated ensemble duo that exist. Once you give people a taste of incompetence for which they receive praise the ship is already sinking.