Karl Miller wrote:

>Of course there is a very valid perspective of the notion of letting
>the music speak for itself.  ...

Actually, no. Between dots on a page and a performance there is a
musician or musicians, every time a musician plays  a piece of music
s/he interprets it, maybe in an extraordinarily original way or a very
routinely conventional way, but the music cannot 'speak for itself'.

Paul Silverthorne
Principal Viola - London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta
Professor of Viola - Royal Academy of Music London