Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Can cry or Can't cry while performing publicly

Just because you base(or think you base) your opinions on something "tangible" doesn't mean other people have to. What may be tangible to you is not necessarily what other people think is the case.

For example, did it not occur to you that LL might "act" in his interviews just the way he acts when performing? That he would do this is incredibly obvious to me. Have you not noticed that when LL plays for a teacher in a master class or with an orchestra his movements and expressions are much less than when he plays solo. That LL is not genuine and is part showman at the piano is not something I made up but an extremely common opinion especially among pro pianists and critics.

What I see/hear in Trifonov interviews is not the same as what you hear. I hear someone who is very emotionally involved in music making. You may trust your impressions of people and call that tangible, but when I do the same thing you object.

You're clutching at more straws.
Of course pianists play differently when they have to accommodate other musicians. But in the case of Lang Lang - even in chamber music, when he's having to keep an eye on his fellow musicians, and he's not the 'star' soloist - his facial expressions are still as obvious. (Yes, I've also seen him perform Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Rachmaninov trios where he's out of the audience's limelight, mostly hidden behind his fellow musicians).

Let me direct you to the Chopin Competition 2010, where Trifonov played - before he became famous. Look at him playing emotional music there. That was just four years ago.
Then look at Lang Lang when he was a child.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

I agree with both pianoloverus and bennevis. So why argue? Why not give both Trifonov and Lang Lang the benefit of the doubt? Trying to divine the emotional sincerity of any pianist is a pointless exercise. Any performer may be moved to tears at any point in time, but who are we to judge their motivation?

As Heather rightly points out, it's the music that matters.

Although we all have our preferences and predilections, I have to say that this is a pretty goddamned good Liszt Sonata, and possibly the best one I've heard in years:

http://vimeo.com/73335683

Reminds me of the Tom Hanks line in "A League of Their Own". ;-)

Maybe if you're playing at a funeral, but generally, mostly no....

I think can/can't is less relevant than should/shouldn't. I would even argue that, for any professional performers, the latter is far more important than the former. I'll explain my reasoning, and then answer the former.

For the purpose of my response, I won't consider social norms or "appropriateness", though it is a valid argument and worth consideration. But for the sake of brevity, I am only looking internally at the performer and what the performer does that influences the performance.

Here, I would contend that all performance is fake. I feel I must state that up front, because it will provide a basis for much of my response. A performer, by necessity, must maintain at least some separation from the subject's emotional state. I will use grief as an example, since it is relevant. If an actor cries on screen, the tears may be real, and at least some of the emotion may be real, but there is still a degree of separation from scenes of overwhelming grief. If the character is paralyzed with grief, the actor needs to portray this, but not be so paralyzed themselves. Therefore, the grief is minimized in the actor's mind to a controllable state. Hence, fake. All performance, in this way, and to varying degrees, is an illusion, and the effectiveness of that illusion determines the quality of the performance.

So, I bring this back to pianistic performance. If tears facilitate the necessary emotional state to properly express the music, then by all means, use them. If, instead, they hinder the performance, then do not use them. If you must actively hold them back, then practice them out of existence. Work and work during practice to distance yourself from the emotional draw of the music until you find the balance point that allows you to convey the musical idea to the best of your ability.


Now, to the original question of can/can't. I can't, but that's not to say that I can't. I specifically choose not to because, in my case, it would hinder the performance. But if the point of the performance were to cry, then yes. I could.