Some Notes on Performance

Extract

It is odd to see the wrongdoer honourably acquitted while his victim is condemned, yet these are often the respective lots of performer and composer. Who has not sometimes looked forward to the playing of a rarely-heard work which he happens to love, only to be disappointed in the event by an inadequate performance? What he well knew to be a beautiful piece of music was exhibited as a mere conglomeration of sounds with little meaning, or none. Imagine the feelings of a composer as he listens to such a performance of his work! No wonder the blame is put on him whose music one is supposed to have heard. And the performer is often praised for his courage in an allegedly lost cause.… That it was lost because the performer did not really know what he was playing is seldom conjectured.