Last night, I heard Roberto Diaz and the Richmond Symphony perform Penderecki's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. Also on the program was Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture and Tchaikowsky's 5th Symphony. Eighty of my students also attended this weekend's Richmond Symphony Concerts.
After class today, one student asked me about what he perceived as a lack of emotion in Diaz's playing. I responded with the following points:
1. A performer's emotional response to a piece they are playing is not the same every time. For various reasons, sometimes you might not feel much of anything that's relevant to the music at hand. The place of emotion in performance is an issue that many performers grapple with.
2. It may be possible for a performer to focus entirely on the musical details of a score, and thus to bring it to life for the listeners. Such a performer might be trusting the music to evoke the appropriate emotions in the listeners, not his or her own expression or charisma.
3. Maybe the meaning or application of a particular work is so universal that the injection of a performer's personal emotional emphasis might interfere with the work's true scale and power. I wonder if the overly emotional presentation of a large symphonic work might paradoxically weaken its impact.
4. Finally, a performer's appearance is not a trustworthy measure of his or her emotional engagement. Not everyone looks the same way when they are angry or sad or enjoying themselves. Also, a performer's emotional experience in performance may involve emotions we have never felt.
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