What strikes me most in recent years in Holland (and maybe it’s the same all around the world for all I know) is that, for the most part, only the old recognized masters are performed by today's pianists - and by old masters I mean such figures as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and to a lesser extent Schönberg, Stravinsky and Messiaen. Performances of more “modern” works by post 1950 composers are virtually non-existant.
Why is this? Why are the works of contemporary composers being ignored by the public and performers alike? It is a question that troubles me deeply as it has great personal relevance for the simple reason that I happen to be a composer myself. I continually ask myself - as so many other contemporary composers do - such questions as: are today's piano works not beautiful or interesting enough?
Or is it, perhaps, that they are devoid of technical and aesthetic challenges? Perhaps, more to the point, one asks, is it because they are commercially unattractive and that "modern" music is just not a financially viable proposition, and that the record companies themselves are subtly dictating what performers will or will not play? In other words is profit the determining factor as to what gets played or recorded?
It would seem, on the surface, highly likely, because how else can one explain the almost limitless number of dreary, routine performances and recordings of such overworked "war-horses" as the Goldberg Variations, the Moonlight Sonata, the Jupiter or the Eroica? to name just a few. No one in their right mind disputes the greatness or importance of such monumental works, but does one want to eat nothing but roast pork or veal for every meal? Are we not living in a virtual musical museum? If we were really honest with ourselves wouldn't we confess that we are all getting a little bit sick and tired of Hayden and Beethoven, Mahler and Wagner?
I realise that I am treading on sacred ground here, but is it not time that today's pianists (and the whole musical establishment for that matter) showed a little musical courage and a spirit of adventure and, instead of forever walking down the old, well-known, beaten paths of musical tradition, broke away from their slavish conservatism and ventured out into the exciting and bracing new world of musical thought that is lying at their feet? For goodness sake, let's throw open the windows and let some fresh air in! Believe me, there is a lot of wonderful, challenging and really lovely music out there just waiting to be discovered! Of course, a lot of this music is technically extremely difficult and for your timid performer this, perhaps, is sufficient reason for him/her to avoid it and rather settle for an "easy" Mozart or Scarlatti piano sonata, (and consider that Mozart was a very hard play composer is his days). Afterall, breaking new ground requires hard-work and discipline and technical proficiency of an exceptionally high order. It is not for the lazy or the incompetent.
One is tempted to ask, is this then, perhaps, one of the main reasons why modern piano music is so studiously avoided? Is it, one wonders, because it is actually beyond the ability of most of todays pianists whose limited technique is only able to cope with the relatively simple and now highly stylised technical demands made by the traditional classical repetoire?
Sadly, there seems little doubt that the level of technical proficiency displayed by many up-and-coming pianists nowadays is just not adequate enough to cope with the often highly challenging and technically demanding works of today's composers.
In earlier years, the giants of the piano - like Moscheles, Taussig, Thalberg, Henselt, Kalkbrenner, and many others, constantly raised the bar of technical virtuosity by holding public contests at which the Winner took all, so to speak and the defeated slunk away shame-facedly in disgrace.
But where are the giants of today? Where the contests?
And here's another question: why are today's performers not equipped to play the music of their contemporaries?
I personally believe that it is because the instruction students receive at todays music academies and colleges is simply not geared to providing the necessary quidance and training which alone will enable a student to master the intricacies of modern piano works. In fact, I would go further and say that for the most part the teachers employed by these institutions are themselves not experienced or knowledgeable enough to evaluate, let alone perform, complex modern piano works. Of course, I realise that I am generalising and that one will, now and again, come across the courageous exception - the rare visionary who has the courage (and temerity) to introduce and expose his students to a wide range of contemporary works (works of Sorabji for instance or Ferneyhough), but how rare that is!
What, then, is the answer?
Put simply, I personally think (and I am not without experience in this respect as I am a music teacher myself) that it is imperative that young students be continually exposed to the widest possible spread of modern-day works and properly and competently instructed by enlightened mentors in their technical and intellectual complexities. Thus by continuous and diligent practise they should be urged and encouraged to strive to their utmost to reach higher and ever-higher levels of technical mastery.
It is my sincere conviction that if this is not done, we will soon reach the stage where more and more works will be written which are technically and intellectually increasingly far beyond the reach of more and more pianists and students who have opted (and will continue to opt) to take the safe, unadventurous and comfortable path of spiritual conservatism and mediocrity.
In my own piano works - and indeed in all my works, I am continually striving to raise the bar and explore the new, exciting and beautiful uplands of musical thought. I do not do this out of a desire just to the different and original. I do it because I must. I do it because, as Martin Luther once said: "Hier stehe ich - ich kann nicht anders".
Maurice Verheul and Edited By Thurstan Bassett