musicianiship--when is it bad or good ?


i have been attending concerts for the last 50 years. very often, i find it it interesting to read a music critic's "opinion" of the performance i have attended. invariably, a performer is taken to task for a poor performance or is praised for an "excellent" one.

why is one performance better than another if it is a matter of opinion ?

for example, if a pianist distorts the tempo by playing too slow or too fast, or with too much stacatto, or in general, takes liberties with the score, why is that necessarily bad ?
mrtennis
Mrtennis,
just give us dumbs a few examples of ur xperience above described s'il vous plait (x-cuse my friench)...
if i am attending an orchestra concert. i would describe factually what i heard. the tempos were too fast or too slow. certain performers were not in tune. their instruments sounded sharp or flat. the musicians did not sound like an ensemble. some musicians were ahead or behind the beat. they played to loud or too soft. they ignored the composer's markings and thier performance did not coincide with the wishes of the composer.

the above would be a hypothetical description of could have been observed at a symphony orchestra concert.

if you will note, i did not indicate a value to the performance. i tried to factually describe what i heard.
hi tvad:

do you rememebr a performance of a brahms piano concerto with glenn gould and leonard bernstein ?

the conductor made a stetement about the interpretation of glenn gould with which he disagreed.

whenever standards are set up by experts, there may be other experts who disagree.

if one must perform in a certain way to be licensed, one perorms according to the requirements to get licensed, but then may chose not to perform that way. it's not medicine. it's art. yes there are standards but they are not absolute.
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hi ellery: communication can be neutral and you the reader then decide if you like what is being described.

my own style of communication is one of detachment from that which i am experiencing. i try to report what i observe and let the reader decide what it all means.

yes, my description is subjective, but i try to be as neutral as possible, as a reporter does.