With Florestan in Australia and New Zealand, September/October 2001

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text excerpt

It's my task to introduce the Fauré again, and this time I speak about the first time I heard it played, when I wondered when the 'action' was going to begin, and gradually realising that it wasn't. I describe how I came to see that I had ruined it by having the wrong expectations of the piece, and how one has to give up the idea that a piece of music will be written in narrative form, with contrasting themes, intellectual development, mood changes, reconciliation of contrasting themes at the end, and so on. I say that for me listening to the Fauré trio is like that kind of time-lapse photography that one sees in nature programmes, where you watch a flower unfolding, and see everything in great detail. Nothing 'happens' apart from that process of flowering, which in itself is a beautiful thing to witness. As I speak, I see people gazing at me with deep attention, and I wonder once again whether there is any way to develop this kind of talking about music from the performer's point of view. I do have the impression that it's new to many people. Perhaps Dr Johnson would say, 'It is not done well, but one is surprised that it is done at all.'

excerpt from 'With Florestan in Australia and New Zealand, September/October 2001' pp. 111 (214 words)

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1404931543749