waltondammerung

Pianissimo

Some friends from church loaned me a DVD of the Verbier Festival & Academy 10th Anniversary Piano Extravaganza, and I am watching it right now. The music is very good, and, of course, poppish, but the thing that strikes me the most about it is the way the personalities of the musicians shines through in the tight camera angles. I've become so used to performances of any sort on my television being very visually polished with beautiful people taking part in them. Professional pianists and string players are not usually very beautiful people, and they are also not used to people watching them perform at close range. Jowls are jiggling, heads are bobbing, teeth are grinding, knobby hands are pounding, and frizzy hair is flying--everyone is having fun making beautiful music, and it shows in such a genuine, transparent way. After the first movement of the first piece--a piano duet--you can clearly see one pianist lean over and whisper to the other, "That was good." Their outfits don't match one another at all. They range from a white tux to a black suit with a red tie to an emerald green evening gown to some sort of bright blue silk top with white pants, but it doesn't matter. The goal is to perform something that sounds exquisite, and everyone is so wrapped up in it that all you see is how absorbed everyone is in the music. It's a far cry from, oh, Jessica Simpson, who can't sing but sure looks darn good while she's doing it. I think music is so much more moving and entertaining when the musicians are clearly enjoying it for its own sake and sharing that enjoyment with their audience.