I've just taken a break from standing up a ladder wielding electric hedge trimmers, and over lunch I've been reading Robert Philip's keynote address from last year's RMA/CHARM conference (thanks to Beverly Woodward for pointing me in its general direction). And would you believe it, he puts very carefully and succinctly what I was trying to say in my last diary entry about playing classical music. I hope he won't mind me quoting the relevant bit - you can read the whole paper for yourself here.

The most satisfactory performances are those in which we seem to perceive with absolute clarity what the composer meant. Of course different performances can seem to achieve this – the ‘meaning’ is not fixed. But clarity is the essence of great performance, and the essence of extracting and conveying meaning. And this involves a sort of focus that not only identifies meaning, but also excludes the meaningless, and does not seek to add to what is meant. The greatest performances are not those that seem most heavily weighted with meaning. Performers all too often seem anxious to demonstrate that they are deeply serious, by burdening the music with as much meaning as they can give it. But extra meaning beyond what is meant does not clarify, it obscures.

Isn't that great? To that I would add that performers all too often also seem anxious to demonstrate that they are deeply clever or talented, which if you're playing someone else's music should be a secondary consideration rather than a primary one.

later
Hm, can I really be one of the 200 people in the world who enjoyed this? I've been clearing up my study (and my computer desktop, on which this has been lurking for some time) so I finally subjected myself to the 25 minutes of the world's least wanted music while bagging up hedge clippings ... and while I'm in no hurry to hear it again, it did make me laugh several times, most notably in the Yom Kippur Wal-Mart childrens' chorus section. You can hear it here: it's worth 25 minutes of your time, honest. As long as you're doing something else more worthwhile too. Of course, the Most Wanted song is really horrible.  Musicians listening to the Least Wanted can mentally tick off those aspects of it which inhabit their own work.  And contemplate their lack of commercial success.