Playing Chamber Music without the Score? Brahms Piano Trio No. 1 [VIDEO]

[masterraro]

Hello again,

So... I used to perform all chamber music without the score on the music stand. This performance of the Brahms first piano trio marks the occasion that all stopped. The truth is, I still memorize all the chamber music I play, along with all of the parts of the rest of the ensemble.

A Mannes professor came up to me after this performance and lectured me about how arrogant and wrong it is to not have the score up there along with the rest of the ensemble. Funny enough, I remember an Oberlin professor (and Cleveland orchestra member) coming up to me after playing the Mendelssohn 2nd piano trio and praising me for not using music. I guess people are divided on this topic.

Bernstein, Toscanini, Karajan, and others famously conducted without the score. I just fail to see how this is all that different from performing a concerto without the score up there with you. Clearly it offended this particular piano professor, after all, I was doing something unorthodox - But I certainly do not consider this practice as egotistical. For me, it's about respecting this great music in exactly the same way one does their own solo music. Of COURSE I should know every line in the music, not just the piano part - that's my stance. I can't imagine it any other way.

Since this day, I bring the score up on stage with me and pretend to look at it while performing chamber. If anything, all the pretend page turning and looking I do causes far more distraction and problems in and of itself.

I welcome the discussion on this topic! On the music and the performance too, of course 

[anacrusis]

I think the value of having the score is that often, if you have a memory error in the piano part, everything falls apart. The piano part is usually written as the foundation against which the other players rest. So as the pianist, you have a very important role in overseeing or "conducting" the work in a way. If you have a bad day with a memory error, everything falls apart. Very simple fix to that: use the score.

[nightwindsonata]

Frequent chamber music player here:

I always use the score. Even when I have the piece memorized, I always use the score. Chamber music parts are much more complex than a concerto accompaniment; often the pianist needs to switch roles between soloist and accompanist quite frequently, while listening and adapting to the other musicians, cueing tempo changes/rubatoes, and keeping in mind the musical intent. It can indeed be done from memory, but why put that extra pressure on yourself? I hate performing from memory; it has to be done, but if I can avoid the risk at all, I absolutely do it. No point in ruining a perfectly good performance (and potentially embarrassing your fellow musicians) with something avoidable like a memory slip.

[perfect_pitch]

I think it depends on the person. I for one ALWAYS perform from memory. It puts me in a state of just enjoying the music instead of letting the score distract me. I feel completely focused on the fingers, the sound, the performance, instead of constantly checking and rechecking...

...however that is only because I can play from memory. I can go to the shops in the intent of buying a loaf of bread, get there and think to myself 'what the bloody hell was I going to buy'... yet I can memorise music with no challenge at all.

Those who feel comfortable with the music there like a safety net is perfectly fine to me, but I also applaud anyone who has the guts to do it without the music. I don't think anyone should be chastised one way or another, but CERTAINLY not for doing it from memory - that takes MORE skill.

As for the performance, I've only listened to the first movement, but I was pretty impressed. Everyone sounds like they have a decent hold over the music and the ability to make sure that the instruments with the melody weren't suppressed. Doesn't seem like there's much to critique based on the 1st movement.

[masterraro]

Some fair points here, but I think the general argument against doing this isn't very good. If there is a disaster with one of the other players, for example, how does me having the score up there truly help? What am I going to do, blurt out a measure number after a disaster that results in awkward silence? At a certain level, this just isn't the kind of disaster that is a real possibility. If one player has a fumble, the other players are almost certainly better off continuing and allowing the offender to join back in on the downbeat of the next measure etc.

Here's a funny story: Many years ago, I played the Brahms E minor cello sonata with a rather poor cellist. Despite her having the music up on stage with her, she decided to teleport from the exposition all the way to the recap somewhere in the transition section between the two themes. She apparently was relying on her (poor) memory, even with the score being up there. I didn't have the music on stage with me, but I treat chamber music like solo music - I knew her part as well as I knew mine. So, I caught her in the recap pretty much without missing a measure, and I'm sure most of the audience had no clue. How exactly would the score have helped me in this case? A reliance on the score would have been even more problematic. I would have started frantically flipping through pages one after the other, desperately trying to figure out where she is. Or maybe I should have stopped her and asked, on stage in front of an audience, "what measure number!?"

Another funny story: The only time I've had a true "where the f am I?" fumble on stage playing chamber was while pretending to turn pages for myself during a very hard piece, the Corigliano violin sonata. I had been pretending to flip every so often, and I became so distracted by thinking about this act from a 3rd person perspective that I freaked myself out right before one of the most complex sections. I realized I had flipped to a totally random page right before this section was approaching, and I started thinking about the music I was looking at instead of what I was currently playing. So I dropped out for about half measure or something, then joined back in (the violinist kept playing of course) - again, I absolutely doubt anyone noticed. But it felt like a disaster to me, and it was CAUSED by the score being up there.

I've always had my score out during every rehearsal, and yes, the pianist plays a special role being the only one with the entire score in front of them. But once the performance happens, having a solid memory of every note of the music is better than relying on good sight reading, which SO many pianist do for a lot of their chamber playing.

Maybe I should simply do, for the sake of optics, what I've now tried out a few times: Bring the score up, open it up to the first page, and then never touch it again. Or, just have a page turner up there doing an awesome pretend job :p