It is true, that in recording, many people have what Charles Rosen calls "microphone fright". Not missing a note is incredibly hard, when you know you have to be very accurate and "perfect", for a machine. And of course, you have your entire audience listening to your work, which they expect to be in the best shape. But there is a difference, a concert or recital will be marked on peoples minds, and notes by critics (unless it is filmed or recorded, for example, Horowitz recordings are great, but I once heard a cd recording of one of his concerts, and there were many wrong notes). The recordings will be experienced again, over and over. If there is one, or two wrong notes, the recording can be very irritating. For example, when listening to some recordings by Rachmaninoff, I feel there is something odd, when he plays many wrong notes. I believe that it is crushing for the recording artist to face it often, it has always been a great pressure, especially in the beginning of sound recording age, when erasing a recording and making another one was not as simple, but that is a different occasion, because the recordings were used more as documents. Is there such thing as a filming artist?
Hmm... This might be strange, striving for not only a very accurate performance for sound of the recording, but also making all the gestures and behaving that would be expected by an audience... I would say that this has the elements of both recording and concert events, being a little more difficult than one may think... But I think it depends on the artist, if one feels confortable with going to the studio and making some recordings, or if the person is rather confortable with the audience.
Mario Barbosa
Topic: concert artist VS recording artist