David Robertson: preference

Transcript context

…A lot of Pierre’s music now is fairly old. Does it still sound contemporary? That’s an interesting question. I’m not sure that it’s possible to give a really compelling and satisfactory answer. The reason for this is that I think contemporary is a very movable feast, and it has to do with what it is you’ve experienced. Someone might listen to a piece of Pierre’s from say, the 1950s — I’m thinking like the First Sonata for Piano or the Sonatine for Flute and Piano — and think of that as very contemporary. Whereas someone else who has been involved in contemporary classical music, for want of a better term, for the last 60 years will hear that and say, “Oh, that’s very dated.” This is one of the challenges. My sense, in any piece of music that I play, is to try and make it — regardless of when it was written — contemporary in the sense that it speaks to us now because we are contemporary. When I’m doing Mozart, I’m not expecting the audience to come in a horse and carriage and have knee breeches, and then to die from appendicitis on the early side. There are lots of things that one does, and I think that, from that point of view, there are certain works of Pierre’s that have become kinds of classics. Like the Second Piano Sonata, which doesn’t sound dated.…

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