bringing up an old topic again

[bloke]

When someone is interested in playing a piece of music really well (regardless of whether it's 3 minutes or 15 minutes long) they should memorize it.

Once it's memorized, they can then begin to learn it.

Music is not pieces of paper, and nor is it zeros and ones that produce images on tablets.

Imagine someone going to an audition - whereby none of the required passages are more than a minute long, having to stare at pieces of paper to play any of them, and hoping to prevail.

The part of the brain that memorizes - and then expands on that memory to learn and develop - is being ignored and allowed to become fallow. That's not a good thing.

The same goes for other disciplines.

[Mark]

I just watched several YouTube videos of Hans Nickel playing solos with the WDR Symphony Orchestra. He played all the solos from memory.

[graybach]

Hans Nickel is great.
I love watching him as well.
He just retired from the German WDR Symphony.


This is not really tuba-related, per se, but I love to watch
Gustavo Dudamel conduct for the same reason, memorizing the music, which he does at least 95% of the time.
There’s a great video on YouTube from about 15 years ago of Dudamel conducting the Simon Bolivar Symphony at the
BBC Proms in London.
He conducted Mahler’s 2nd, The Resurrection, completely from memory.
It does seem to add a certain something when musicians perform things memorized.

[bloke]

If what you heard Hr. Nickel play sounded better than "correct", he probably KNOWS the pieces you were hearing him play (rather than merely having had them committed to memory).

Maestros (who deserve a title beyond "conductor" or "music director") study scores, memorize them, continue to study them, and then learn them.

Once they've learned scores (beyond memorization), they can add their own interpretations beyond the Sears-and-Roebuck/play-it-like-the-record/B-flat/what-is-expected interpretation.

I hardly play "solos" anymore. The last time was a shutdown-era concert (2nd mvt of RVW with acct. arranged for brass choir). I "know" that concerto (and anyone serious about trying to find a job playing in an orchestra should probably "know" it). Prior to playing it, I really didn't practice it very much at all, but DID practice playing the tuba - so that (when I played that piece that I KNOW) I wound sound my best.

I've heard of concert pianists showing up to play a concerto, their schedule being so very tight that they couldn't even rehearse (not even the dress) with the orchestra. The orchestra (due to a mix-up in communication) started off playing A DIFFERENT CONCERTO (other than the one the pianist understood they were hired to play), and the pianist (likely with a bit of an adrenaline jolt, and then a shoulder shrug or two) going right into the concerto that the orchestra was playing.

[graybach]

That was Maria João Pires.
My father plays the piano and sent me this a while back.