Jouzas Rimas:

>Donald, is artist's identification with the composer's world really so
>important to you? You've reviewed probably dozens CDs of Bach on the piano
>and this is a field where the mentioned quality is not paramount.  For a
>perfect match between the performer's and the composer's worlds, we have
>Rachmaninov playing Rachmaninov.

And there it isn't perfect either.  The Rachmaninov that played was a
different person from the one who wrote the music.  I know that this sounds
awfully picky, but I believe that the difference between the world of the
composer and the world of the performer is a crucial element to the realm
of music.  This is even valid when the composer and performer is the same
person.  Nonetheless, I believe that a successful interpretation is based
on the ability of the performer to dive into the (imagined) world of the
composer.  Without trying to understand the world the composer lived in
during the time of the composition, one cannot fully understand the
composition itself.  Obviously, this will always remain an attempt, no one
can feel exactly what any other person felt, but one can try to understand
and approximate.  But in the end, the greatness of music comes when the
spirit of the composer and the performer unite.  Either alone is shallow.

Jan