of soloists and accompanists

When I was having my afternoon nap just now, my chain of thoughts snapped to something about music - this time it's about accompaniment.

I shall talk specifically about piano accompaniment. For those who visit my blog and don't understand about piano accompaniment, basically it's about a solo(one) instrument being accompanied (played with) by the piano. So the piano provides (gives) the basic harmony. For a piece of music. Duh.

Ok jokes aside, for years in the classical music scene in Singapore (or maybe globally), I've noticed that some (and I would like to emphasize he word 'some') accompanists simply practise for one rehearsal with the soloist before a performance. What I'm trying to say here is that they simply don't have enough time to practise well and hard enough to give a GOOD performance for our audience.

I believe it's not just the accompanist's fault. The soloist also need to provide the accompanist with enough time to practise the piece!

Let me give you an ideal picture of what should be the case: Hongrui and I have an item in the chamber concert. He passes me the score 3 weeks before the concert so that I have enough time to practise! (the notes are pretty easy) He also practises and when we get together about 1 week before the concert, we can play it properly.

Now the problem here is, sometimes soloists over-estimate their accompanist's ability and they provide a not-so-good performance on stage. Will you, as audience, enjoy the performance? They certainly did not practise hard and well enough.

Here's the example:
My friend pays a very high amount of money to a professional accompanist, passes him the score one day before the concert, practise it with the accompanist (who is sight-reading), takes the score back, gives the pianist the score on the day of the concert itself.

Maybe the pianist is good enough, but it's simply frightening to see them sight-reading on the stage and it is obvious the pianist does not have the capibility to notice everything (harmony change, tempo, pedalling, tone control, articulation, depth, sound production) other than the notes! Maybe a little - but seriously audience are these what you want to hear?

What I suggest to all soloists are that you have to be responsible and allow your accompanist to practise his music, and that both of you are responsible to bring good music to the audience. Of course, another word I learned from Mr Sze - desire. Remember, every concert is your best concert!


Here's another joke I heard from a friend in university - he was accompanying someone inside the conservatory but was paid to accompany someone outside, and he actually admitted to me that he didn't practise much for the music with the uni student but did (lots harder) for the one that provided him money.

At first I really didn't mind. Now I'm a little tweaked, but money still rules 90% of the world though. However my point here is please don't let money run everything? The audience want to hear good music - we should not simply practise hard for the performance that provides us money. We should try our best to work both pieces to close-perfection!



Ok now for comments on the tagboard, if any from soloists and accompanists.