My wife and I just spent a week in Malta to attend a baroque music festival. The music was sublime. The musicians were international professionals. The venues where the concerts were held were all picturesque. The appeal of baroque music has stood the test of time. It's less sentimental and bombastic than romantic music, clearer and more abstract. I admire the skill of the performers as well as the erudition of musicologists who edit the scores and study the performance styles of the time, as well as the waves of influence between Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and England.
One performance we saw was of English song from Purcell on, performed by Kate Semmens, a soprano, and the English harpsichordist Steven Devine. Halfway through the concert Devine "confessed" (as he put it) that the accompaniment he had been playing wasn't written out, and he was improvising over a figured bass. That's a skill I admire, one that classical pianists d on't necessarily acquire.
Last night we heard an unusual jazz trio: the singer Julia Feldman, the guitarist Steve Peskoff, and the keyboardist Richard Samuels. They improvised, of course, over the chords of the songs, and the result was fascinating. I admire the skill of jazz musicians, which I mostly lack, more than I admire the skill of musicians who sit in an orchestra and read notes, which I can more or less do.
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