Posted by Mary Ann on May 23, 2003 at 09:53:31:
In Reply to: Re: a dumb post here posted by David on May 23, 2003 at 05:12:59:
I've run into this general concept at IHS (horn society) conferences, which have many, many performances. I remember at one, there was a performance of En Foret (I think) where the horn was sounding pretty bad....and the performer was obviously in some distress over how it was sounded. In the middle of the piece, she stood up, interrupting the performance, apologize to the audience for being unprepared, and walked off the stage. That did cause some commentary!! I've seen performers just raked over the coals verbally by a few in the audience just after the performance, and that kind of made me mad. Like, the people who were doing the raking were not up there performing in front of 1000 horn players after having traveled halfway around the world the day before.
Of course horn is a more treacherous instrument than tuba; but if I go to a conference, I expect to hear a wide range of horn playing. There are people from different countries who have a different concept of both sound and music than I do, and I also have great sympathy for the stress that could occur knowing that one's audience is extremely knowledgable. Of course, I think that knowledge should be used in a compassionate way. If one is "officially" reviewing a concert, I think it takes great tact to say anything negative without having repercussions. I wouldn't use a typical newspaper approach, myself.
MA