Rock & Bach

It must be really nerve-wracking to play pieces in front of the person who wrote them, as young Vlado Perlemuter did for Ravel back in the 1920s. As a teacher, Perlemuter apparently took pains to ensure that his own students would be just as nervous when they played for him: I once attended a masterclass with one of his former students who said that when Perlemuter didn’t like something, he would slap his palm to his forehead and scream, “Non, non, non! Stupide! Stupide!”

So much of music education seems founded on the idea that fear of humiliation is the most effective way of motivating students. Is this true? I tend to be much more productive when I feel comfortable, and I’m grateful that my teacher is unfailingly civil. She rarely says anything more pointed than “I don’t know what you’re trying to say here”; or “I don’t know about that pedal”; or “Are you sure you don’t want to be a lawyer?” I get really mad when musicians get impatient with others who are at an earlier stage of their musical life – what difference does it make when none of us is ever going to be good enough anyway? We’re all in the same intractable position, more or less, those of us who play music and want to get better.

Jerk that he may have been, Perlemuter does have a way with Ravel. He really catches the shimmering water effect in Ondine perfectly: