Top soloist: I study scores while driving my car
mainIt’s the controversial Anne-Akiko Meyers, and she steers carefully clear of controversy in this friendly interview with Zsolt Bognar for Living the Classical Life.
But the confession (play 12:00) that she absorbs music best while running errands in her car is one that we hear quite often.
Is that what other soloists do – working out an interpretation while searching for a parking spot?
Once the music is into the brain, interpretive ideas can come at all sorts of “music-alternative” times: whilst digging the potato patch, brushing your teeth, cooking the children’s dinner, or (for those of us musicians lucky enough to live in rural areas) feeding the sheep or driving the tractor. Maybe don’t try that latter one if you live in a city, but achieving straight lines whilst driving a tractor can bring on wonderful musical ideas…
It goes the other way too: a friend once played a concerto in the Concertgebouw (very beautifully too) and admitted afterwards that he had also designed a new boat whilst playing the slow movement!
That headline is a little sensationalist. It indicates someone reading printed scores while driving, which would be desperately irresponsible. Instead it seems to be simply something many of us can do — an ability to split focus.
Is “The Controversial” now her new first name or something?
“Top soloist”? How about “Overestimated money-marrying soloist” …
She’s still as beautiful as ever, but goodness, not exactly one of music’s deep thinkers, is she?
The Chopin difficult passage I was practicing and no result I solved during an M.R.I
It’s a little disturbing. She doesn’t specify exactly but it sounds like she is indeed driving and reading the score with the stereo blasting at the same time. Her next sentence implying road rage doesn’t help alleviate my concerns either. Stay clear…
There is something beauty inside the headline: The music is always in her head even while she is driving.
Her dreary playing is the result of this confession.