This is an update on a post originally written for Yellow Barn, introducing my residency ‘Faithful to the Spirit’, exploring how recordings have shaped how we make and experience music. The residencies culminated in concerts putting my work as an Edison Visiting Fellow at the British Library into the practice of performance, alongside the wonderful violinist Maria Włoszczowska, violist Rosalind Ventris, cellist Jonathan Dormand, and double bassist Lizzie Burns.
Having learned Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 109 during my studies at the Royal Academy of Music, I played the piece at the time for a fellow student. Upon finishing, she marveled at my meticulous adherence to Beethoven’s detailed and sometimes perplexing indications. ‘You observe every indication in the score!’ she exclaimed. I feigned modesty but was, in fact, self-satisfied, having put the music first; above all capturing, as best as I could, Beethoven’s desires, passed down to us through his hallowed score. In hindsight I look back on the incident with amusement and slight chagrin at my deferential naivety and complacence, having misconstrued literal fidelity to the score for artistry and a historical respect for Beethoven’s music.