Perfection in music does not equate to greatness in music making
As a trained musician, I have been taught that your “technique” is critical and that your playing (I play the viola) must be perfect (of course, I am opening myself up to a plethora of cruel viola jokes!). Indeed, one must be perfect in order to gain entry into the world’s leading orchestras. Imagine one bad note from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra brass section?! When there is an opening in the LA Philharmonic, hundreds of instrumentalists may apply for a single seat, but only one obtains the position. The musician who wins the job plays perfectly, each note perfectly in place, perfect rhythm, perfect intonation. Perfect everything.
But, perfection in music does not make it great. In fact, great music making does not require perfection at all. It requires risk taking, spontaneity, personality and yes, imperfection.
As a trained musician, I have been conditioned to believe that only perfect playing can be great, and therefore institutions like the beloved LA Phil and other first rate organizations are truly great, and that everything else is real sub par. I have been conditioned to believe that only these organizations have a corner on greatness, and therefore deserve all the attention, all the accolades, and…all the money.
But, what we have been taught and conditioned to believe is not true.
Great music making does not require perfect playing. Though, it helps, it is not a prerequisite. Great music making requires something beyond just perfect playing. It cannot be mass produced, marketed and sold, and repeated four nights per week. Great performances are inexplicable. They just are. I can count the number of truly GREAT performances on my right hand; an encore by Yo Yo Ma, an organ performance at a friend’s funeral, a rare performance by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (an Indian classical music artist). All “in the moment,” unrehearsed, timeless.
“It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to be Great,” is what I always tell my orchestra before we perform.
What does this mean, exactly? It means: play with conviction, play with your heart, give it ALL you possibly can. Play as if this may be your/our last concert ever, not just one in a series of five concerts over six nights, an expectation, an assumption, another “gig.”
And, the byproduct of this attitude is usually a great performance, where the focus is not on perfection, but the feeling and emotion the music conveys.
