Just Making It Up

We tend to forget that many of the great classical composers were very fine improvisors. Beethoven's early career was built on this ability.

I recently heard Roger Norrington, conductor, and superb Beethoven interpreter, pointing out that it's useful to listen to the great symphonies, and other pieces, as if the music is being improvised by a sort of super-sensitive orchestral consciousness. Abandon all expectations of something that is inevitably unrolling itself and hear the music as if it's going in unexpected, almost playful, directions, developing in ways that are less than inevitable, constantly surprising the listener.

This is not just a useful idea - it's transformative. I played the first symphony the other day - in a performance conducted by Sir Roger - and felt dizzied by it, even though I know it backwards. I suppose it helps that Norrington's tempi are generally pretty helter skelter - something else I think he's right about.

Underlying all this is the healthy idea that it doesn't pay to be overly reverential about the music we listen to. Let it live instead.