Posted by Gary Press on February 02, 2000 at 09:59:32:
In response to Joe S.'s recent post, I pose a question for ponderance.
I hear people, when discussing interpretations of great(and even not-so-great) music using the term "self-indulgent". I have seen this applied to many interpreters of music, but in particular the late Leonard Bernstein (i.e. Bernstein's Mahler is so "self-indulgent").
I always have top sit back and ask myself, "What does that mean anyway?"
Is a conductor or musician "self-indulgent" if he/she injects their own personality into the music? Or are we led to believe that there is only one interpretation for a given work? What does this say about the differences in interpretation of a work between a Lenny, a John Eliot Gardiner, a Sergiu Celibidache or an Otto Klemperer?
I'd be very curious as to everyone's interpretations of this seemingly ambiguous term.
Thanks.