David Runnion wrote:

>In chamber music the performers rarely play by memory.  In fact I was once
>told that it is disrespectful to the composer to play sonatas or trios by
>memory, because the performer is somehow putting his or her own "show"
>ahead of the music.  So many times playing sonatas I have the music in
>front of me even if in reality I am playing most of it by memory.

About five years ago my wife and I heard the Tokyo Quartet at the Yale
Summer School of Music in Norfolk, CT, playing Schubert and Beethoven.
There was a severe summer thunder storm and we lost power and lights.
The quartet tried to play in the dark for a few bars but had to give up.
I don't know whether the reason was that they hadn't memorized the parts
sufficiently or whether, even w/ the parts memorized, the players have to
see each other to play together.

Fortunately, power came back a short while later.

Walter Meyer