Schiff is among our most searching and reflective classical musicians. There have been fantastic performers who, for all their personality, were hard pressed to articulate the inner life of music and that sort of thing; they just did it. Schiff on music and language is truly thoughtful and above all plausible--nobody who has ever heard Janacek would deny that this is as close to actual speech great music can get, while remaining utterly great music.
With all due respect for Mr. Schiff, a very fine pianist and often a deep thinker, his statement that Beethoven's written instruction "gesangvoll mit der innigsten Empfindung" translated as "singing with the innermost feeling" is a very poor English translation is a tad ludicrous. How is this a poor translation? Mr. Schiff's English is pretty darn good, so he must have a better suggestion. But he doesn't say. Or, if his English is bad, then how would he know that the translation is poor??
not sure why he thinks its bad, but in my opinion 'singing' doesn't really mean the same thing as 'gesangvoll', and 'empfindung' is a much less common and plain word than 'feeling'. I am content with 'innermost' but still two out of three important words don't really hit the mark. its obviously a technically correct translation, but it doesn't really communicate the exact same thing (as no translation ever does)
Schiff is among our most searching and reflective classical musicians. There have been fantastic performers who, for all their personality, were hard pressed to articulate the inner life of music and that sort of thing; they just did it. Schiff on music and language is truly thoughtful and above all plausible--nobody who has ever heard Janacek would deny that this is as close to actual speech great music can get, while remaining utterly great music.
most profound yet understandable thoughts on music and language
I hope Schiff András could publish a treatise on parlando and language:music interplay!
Many, many thanks for your wisdom. (And for your music-making, which is the delight of my life!)
I would love to have an afternoon of conversation with Schiff.
Wonderfully!
is there a full version of this video?
With all due respect for Mr. Schiff, a very fine pianist and often a deep thinker, his statement that Beethoven's written instruction "gesangvoll mit der innigsten Empfindung" translated as "singing with the innermost feeling" is a very poor English translation is a tad ludicrous. How is this a poor translation? Mr. Schiff's English is pretty darn good, so he must have a better suggestion. But he doesn't say. Or, if his English is bad, then how would he know that the translation is poor??
not sure why he thinks its bad, but in my opinion 'singing' doesn't really mean the same thing as 'gesangvoll', and 'empfindung' is a much less common and plain word than 'feeling'. I am content with 'innermost' but still two out of three important words don't really hit the mark. its obviously a technically correct translation, but it doesn't really communicate the exact same thing (as no translation ever does)
@@naphtanaptha I agree that translations are rarely exact.