MaryB wrote:
At intermission, I made the comment that when Alex was not playing, he seemed bored. It was wonderfully explained to me, that being the serious musician that he is, he may come across that way. I took this to heart and paid even more attention to his piercingly, aching, and beautiful sound. Then I paid attention to his 'silent' moments and it saddens me to say that those times were spent looking out into the audience, tapping his bow on his monitor, and adjusting/picking lint off his clothes. He did not seem to be involved with the beauty of the sound or the words that were transpiring on stage.
Glenn Gould, who is considered by many to be the most brilliant pianist that ever lived, has told about a time when he played with a symphony orchestra, & during an interlude when he was not playing, became absorbed with picking dog hairs off his suit. (This was also written about in a newspaper the next day, where he received rave reviews for his brilliant performance). The fact that he was picking dog hairs off his suit clearly did not mean he was not "involved" with the music, & obviously did not decrease the quality of his playing one bit. I used to play with a baroque/renaissance ensemble, & we often found ourselves doing a variety of odd things during interludes when we weren't playing. It did not mean we weren't involved with the music. Maybe it's something peculiar to the world of classical music, because the idea there is not to put on a show with one's physical demeanor/movements/gestures/etc.; it's assumed that people are at a concert to hear the music, & what a musician does when he/she is not playing, is not taken to have any significance at all, & I believe that is the world that Alex comes from. Conversely, just because someone is jumping around, that doesn't necessarily mean that he/she is more involved with the music. I would be very wary of judging a musician's involvement with the music, based on what he/she does when he/she is not playing. Does the fact that you are sitting still in your seat, at any given moment, mean that you are bored with what's transpiring on stage?
Editing: I just remembered a video I've seen, from the previous tour, where Hattie was eating & drinking something, at a moment when she was not singing. Do you think this means she was bored with the music?