Felix Delbruck <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Peter Varley wrote:
>
>>In the specific case of Schubert's D960, surely [the repeat] is very
>>important? There's music in the lead-back from the end of the exposition
>>to the start which doesn't appear anywhere else in the movement.
>
>Yes, OK.  The counter-argument would be that the repeat was there first
>and Schubert had to think of a lead-in as a way of getting back to the
>beginning.

Um, no, in the beginning there was no repeat at all, until Schubert put
it there.  He did it for the structure of the music.

>He may desperately have wanted the lead-in passage to be heard, or it
>may have been an expedient measure to satisfy the (for him) a priori
>requirement of a repeat!  Look, I admit speculating like this is rather
>unproductive.

Not to mention completely without basis, so why do it?

In all honesty, what it boils down to in the end is

>You may conclude that the lead-in is vital because it adds a new, darker
>perspective to the entire movement.  ...  Does the interpreter have a
>right to make that sort of Judgment?

No. It is not his decision to make.  In doing so, he did an injustice
to the music by placing himself as a performer above it, the composer by
denying him his music as it was intended to be played, and listeners by
cheating them out of hearing the work as Schubert wrote it, rather than as
Brendel abridged it.

>Jocelyn seems to prefer a 'warts-and-all' representation of the score
>that leaves the listener to come to his own conclusion,

Schubert's music has warts now?  Oh, please...

>...I tend to think the interpreter has the duty to take an active stand in
>relation to the work, to try to make some sense of it for the listener and
>show it to its best advantage.  That means digging as deeply as possible
>into all aspects of the score and its genesis, but also having the courage
>to go against the letter of the score if that deep digging suggests it.
>That may be a risk-filled approach, but it is a thoughtful and engaged
>approach, one which keeps the work alive for both performer and audience.

Hacking it to bits does nothing to keep anything alive.

-Jocelyn Wang
Culver Chamber Music Series
Come see our web page: www.bigfoot.com/~CulverMusic