In contrast to a painting, however, a composition must be brought to sound by an interpreter. One artist, sometimes even a whole orchestra, have the ability to impact the effect of the composition - a task of great responsibility! It is for this reason – in contrast to improvisation – that composers try to meticulously describe (all the way to the sixteenth notes) very clear instructions to the interpreter in order to facilitate his or her task. Many many years ago, Beethoven already fought with his printing companies to make sure that additional playing instructions such as “piano”, “crescendo” or “ritardando”, for instance, were added to the score for additional clarity.
Despite all his efforts, Beethoven himself was forced for instance to witness a frustrated member of the audience shouting from the gallery at the disastrous world premiere of his ‘Eroica’ symphony: “when is this finally coming to an end?”
Obviously, a performing artist always had far-reaching additional freedom and means, such as volume, phrasing or tempo in order to turn the high complexity of any good composition into a tangible experience – or render it unrecognizable.
"If someone cannot recognize the appropriate tempo and presentation from the texture of a composition, he should not even get started" – Johann Sebastian Bach already commented his radical views. After the world premiere of Beethoven's ‘Schicksalssymphonie’, the then well-known composer Louis Spohr, who had participated in the first violin, wrote that HE had played Beethoven's 5th, but didn't know what the other members of the orchestra had played! And a long time after Bach and Beethoven, even Gustav Mahler – who is known for the detail of instructions in his scores – had to call out to his orchestra musicians during a rehearsal: “you can find everything in the scores, except what is most essential!”.
The performance of a composition therefore seems to be fine art – despite all existing instructions ...
It is evidently “the spirit” behind the notes that has to be converted into sound – not just the texture itself; similar to how certain accounts from the bible can often be understood or implemented too literally ... The dilemma of today's interpretation of classical music seems to carry on: while notes are played brilliantly and scores followed faithfully, and downright charming, attractive sound is being performed, or better, reproduced – in most cases the compositions are performed way too mechanically, demonstrating a lack of reflection.
However, it should be the sound which interprets = translates the manifold relationships between the notes!