A friend of mine the other day was shocked by my admission,
that when I eventually got the opportunity to visit the Museum of Modern Art,
New York, I was so familiar with some of the paintings from reproductions, that
the actual works bored me. I instanced Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Dali’s melting
watches and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. He thought that this was
ridiculous but I explained that I was only honestly relating an experience, not
putting forward any principle.
I mention this because I have just visited the National
Gallery of Scotland to see Manet’s Mademoiselle Claus, recently acquired by the
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Seeing originals is more important for an
appreciation of Manet’s genius than practically any other painter: some of his
works in reproduction can seem almost academic, even photographic, only
revealing their quality and originality when actually confronted. The economy
of his brushwork is astounding and seeing how the dabs of paint coalesce to
form perfect illusions of reality, is truly magical.
There is no direct analogy between actual paintings versus
reproductions and live performances of classical music versus recordings. A
particular CD may be superior, as an interpretation of a composer’s intentions,
to a given live performance. Colin Wilson’s On Music is the only case that I
have come across where an admission of a preference to listening to recorded
music over attending concerts, has been made.
Undoubtedly, there is a lot of snobbishness connected with
classical music and there are people who live their lives so vicariously that
they seem to feel the need to be attached to celebrity, however tenuously, so
that there is a thrill in attending a performance by a famous musician even
although they are getting very little from it musically. Charles Rosen has
written about how audiences in the past would contain a higher proportion of
competent pianists who would know the music being played from direct
experience. The equivalent of
recorded symphonic music before the modern age was the arrangements for
piano duet that composers like Brahms supplied for home consumption.
I have often thought that, having no musical ability myself,
I would not have gained the immense pleasure from classical music that I have
had, if I had lived before the advent of recorded music. And it may be true
that the musically accomplished get more from of it than I do, although I know
quite gifted individuals who close their minds to anything composed in the last
hundred years. Before a concert I like to do my homework. I am not going to pay
for an expensive ticket and get lost so that I dream.
My last live music experience was the concert by the Arditti
Quartet at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. The concert began with Janacek’s first
quartet, which I have known for a long time but I was attracted to this concert
because of two quartets by Conlon Nancarrow. I had read about him and had duly
bought a CD to sample his music. (Generally this is my route to musical
enjoyment. It began when as a schoolboy in Orkney I read about
modern jazz musicians like Charlie Parker, sent for a record from Keith Prowse
in London and played it until I understood it.) There were two other pieces in
the programme both by Xenakis and they gained from live performance.
My previous experience of the work of Xenaxis was over forty
years ago. On holiday in Paris, I attended with my wife an event in the ruins
at the Musée de Cluny, where we lay on our backs on matting, watching a
lighting display overhead to the accompaniment of electronic music. It was a
fun, holiday curiosity and it didn’t make me want to mug up on Xanakis’ music.
Watching the Arditti Quartet producing the gratings, slides and textures from
conventional instruments was a much more engaging experience. It gave something
I don’t think you would get from a recording.
The piece I have taken to most from my Nancarrow recordings
is Piece No.2 for Small Orchestra not the two quartets played by the Arditti
Quartet, much as I enjoyed them. l may never have the opportunity to hear Piece
No. 2 live.
