Don't Forget the Passion

I was 16, if I remember right, when I played Beethoven Sonata No. 25 (opus 79, first movement) at a recital. I worked on the other movements as well but never performed them for an audience. School and then university and then life got in the way. 

You probably don't know that piece. You can listen to it all played by Daniel Barenboim in the link below. 

When I performed the sonata, I was running on adrenalin and played it a bit faster than I had planned. As a result, my performance was fairly mechanical although note perfect. I'm not telling this story to brag, but rather to make a point about being self-critical, and how growing up means taking chances and learning from experience and being satisfied with that.

I wasn't satisfied with how I played in that performance. On a whim, after the bow at the end, I made a little speech apologizing to my teacher for leaving out the passion. It was a typical Dennis thing to do. Nobody in the audience, including the teacher, thought I needed to apologize. Old Dennis, old enough to be the great grandfather of young Dennis, is quite amazed listening again to music that young Dennis once played with a degree of proficiency. My words for the young Dennis would have been fulsome praise without a hint of criticism. 

Daniel Barenboim does it better, for sure, but it isn't a competition. It is just making music out of those dots Beethoven put on the page. Dennis has learned from experience that not being good enough is OK if you have tried and learned something by trying. 

I have tried a few things since I was 16. Sometimes I put in a bit of passion.

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Beethoven Sonata No. 25 in G, Opus 79, Daniel Barenboim.