How many in-depth interviews, like this, have you seen with other actors? 🤔 They are mostly subject to stupid five-minute promotion interviews...

It's who they are, like a boxer is to be a boxer not a philosophy

Wow. That's a great comparison!

Barenboim does wear a lot of upright collars. He makes some interesting sartorial choices! I've seen rather unusual jackets in his "5 Minutes On.." and in various interviews/videos (eg, the thread on each buttonhole of the sleeve vent was a different color, or unusual fabric). Just part of his genius, I guess! I've noticed too: he tends to really slouch when he's sitting in a chair. Gotta be comfy.

Check out Barenboim's jacket in the "Parallels & Paradoxes" with Till Bronner, it's made out some really crazy (knit?) fabric!

I as a musician, only partly agree with that. I am but a tool to express the divine wisdom and universa: emotions through my skills. As Bach said: solo Deo Gloria.

you can do a lot of things, but the outcome will depend on it. I really like you mentioning lang lang cause I can't stand him for that. I myself had that problem when studying piano. I would get into it too mccuh. I woud play forte when I felt it was correct, or drag the tempo, or accent differently, on a few occasions I even changed the text if nobody would notice. But that pleases myself only, and only in that very moment. Luckily later on I got a great piano teacher who managed to reign me in while harvesting my impulse. So I started following the text, but in my performances I would use my impulse according to the text (a bit hard to explain in words). End result? I felt happier because the first impulse is not always correct, just as Daniel said here, so I enjoed my performances more, other people enjoyed them more, and aftermath was also more enjoyable, both for me and the audience. So I completely agree with Daniel that you need a right combination of modesty, for the purposes of following the piece how it is meant to be, and self confidence, to express yourself and mae it your own in the free space that is available.

@@StrangerPage lol. You contradicted yourself too much. Btw. You have to reach to a level to think like Lang Lang. I m not here to defend him. But he’s on top of the hill. You won’t understand him until you r on that. Ppl saying MJ is a A hole. A tyrant. Unless you won 6 rings then u understand why he did all those things.

Very interesting point. Do you like Glenn Gould? Because (in your words) he usually tend to play Gould, which means to play in his subjective feeling.

art heart That is exactly the reason why famous composers turn to composition because they know how to play themselves the best, Chopin would most likely agree with Barenboim's point of view. There was once an occasion that Franz Liszt was playing Chopin's nocturne, however Chopin did not like Liszt adding unneeded embellishments, Chopin was displeased with Liszt boldness. Also Chopin was a great admirer of Mozart and I'm certain Chopin would try and play Mozart pieces as faithfully as possible.

Chopin1995 thanks for your reply. i dono Gould enough.. but he is certainly not the only example. I think of Lang Lang also. You may like him or not, but personally, i admire his freedom and playfulness. He dares to transform a piece and take it to his own world and makes it a unique song.

shadowjuan2 yes :) a perfect example that illustrates what we're discussing here. Playing a piece is like a love affair. You first get to know and explore your beloved's body and personality. (=the piece content and character). then, either you stick to the rules and make love to your beloved in a very "academic" or "orthodox" way, through the missionary position. Or you go wild and dare to speak your love in new ways, new creative position, following your own unique feelings. What makes your way of loving unique. I tried to express it the best way i could. Hope it makes sense :)

art heart Yes that makes sense, but often following your heart and not what the composer intended is forsaking music. No amateur will ever have the deep understanding and musicality that Beethoven or Mozart had, take as an example Barenboim who has perfected the art of playing Beethoven, Barenboim doesn't play Beethoven with his soul in mind but with Beethoven's very own soul, that's why it sounds so damn good when he plays Beethoven. Listen to what the grandmasters of music tell you, the heart is very misleading a lot of times and that's specially if you are not prepared to play a piece of work, this I have learned the hard way. If you pay careful attention most of the times the best interpreters of music are those who are most faithful and loyal to what the composer intended, that includes Barenboim, Richter, Sokolov, Rubinstein. The only exception is Glenn Gould but even Gould always acted in sake of the music and he was always careful not to mix his emotions with the music.

Is he pretending though?

Klassikpunk eben ein typisches Beispiel von "wie man in den Wald ruft ..." :)