With the best part of 20 years’ experience in examining diploma recitals,
I have long since learnt that just about any competent student can muddle
through the notes of their chosen programme sufficiently well to pass. Of course, it does depend so much on
programme choice; and the diploma recitals which fail do so usually because the
programme has not been well chosen.
The most obvious problem is the temptation to choose pieces which set
out to meet some imagined (and totally non-existent) agenda set by the
examiners. Why students (or, as often as
not, their teachers) feel that the same selection criteria exist in a
professional diploma recital as in a grade 1 exam defies all logic. There may, once, have been a time when a “balanced”
or “varied” programme meant, exclusively, music written at different periods of
musical history, but that certainly is no longer the case in real life. By diploma time, a student should have
sufficient experience to know in which areas of the repertory are their
particular strengths and weaknesses, and to plan a programme which comprises
the former and avoids the latter. A
student who does not know this, is clearly far from ready to tackle a diploma,
no matter how fast or loud they can play.
A second programme-choice-malfunction, if you like, is to choose pieces which
are already well known. The obvious
reason for failure here is that by the time the actual recital comes along, the
student is so tired of the pieces, regards them with such familiarity, that
they go through the motions and fail to realise that a half-decent examiner can
sniff out a routine delivery from an inspired one before even the first note
has been played. Any recital should be,
in part, a voyage of discovery not just for the audience but for the performer;
for only then can the performer communicate that sense of wonder and awe which
makes for a really satisfying performance.
And the third common error is simply choosing pieces which are not liked
but are regarded as worthy; “I hate Beethoven’s late Sonatas, but they look
good on the programme, so I’ll include one”.
Nothing communicates itself more than dislike, and no performer can hide
a sense of disconnect from a piece, no matter how well they handle its technicalities.
But perhaps even more important than merely passing the test in a
diploma recital is to make it memorable and distinctive, so that the examiners
do not just award higher grades and distinctions, but go away with a name
stored in the memory for future reference.
In many cases examiners have a life outside examining and can offer
opportunities to performers whose work they have admired.
It is in this area that most damage is done by the culture of playing
notes rather than delivering a performance.
I’ve sat through no end of good playing of well-chosen repertory and
come away unimpressed. Sometimes it’s a stage
manner which repels, sometimes it’s the dress, but most often it’s a simple
failure to understand the totality of the occasion. Grim programme notes which sound like Grade 5
theory papers or read suspiciously like the half-baked ramblings of a Wikipedia
contributor (something all too often revealed by the inclusion of comments on
aspects of the work which are not actually played in the recital performance)
are still, horribly, the norm; yet these are the one thing that the examiner
will take away from the performance to revisit at a later time.
I often wonder how students prepare for their diploma recitals beyond practising
on their instrument. Do they video record themselves giving a public recital,
do they invite disinterested parties to comment (anonymously) on their YouTube
posting, do they practice deportment and facial expressions in front of a
mirror, do they ask friends and family to suggest how they might look
better? I have strong doubts in many
cases that any of these are done. Yet
how else is a young performer expected to learn how to put on a show in public? I have watched young boys in full evening
dress make themselves look silly by clearly feeling totally out of their
element in inappropriate recital dress.
I have watched teenage girls at a crucial moment become horribly conscious
that their shoulder-less, strapless gown is not offering them the support it
normally does at a party. I have watched
young and old people of both sexes wander on to stage completely confused by
what message they wish to send out – and ending up sending a message of uncertainty
and unease.
Sweaty handkerchiefs and cloths used to wipe the hands look awful if
they are just carried on and off with as much care as the violin, horn or
clarinet (and so do plastic bottles of water, especially when the sucked loudly
during the performance), while a lovely dress covering the body is often spoiled
by horrible shoes covering the feet. On
a personal note, exposed armpits are a major problem for me – I know some conservatories
ban them from recitals – but if they have to be there, then a shave or a wax is
really a pre-requisite, and if there is a tendency to sweat, it is immediately
visible by the watery reflection in stage lights.
The walk on to stage or into the room, the bow (which must be given,
even if nobody is applauding – you have to acknowledge the effort made by your audience
even if it is just one miserable old examiner), the posture between movements
or during introductions and bars’ rests, the smile or the frown, the look of
agony or the look of ecstasy, they all have their place in a performance (which
is often judged subconsciously as much on its visual as its aural appeal). All these have to be practised and practised again
until they become second nature. If it
looks right and natural, then you have the examiners on your side before you
play a single note; if it doesn’t then you have an uphill struggle ahead if you
to win the examiners over.
Has your recital been properly timed?
Do not “borrow” timings from somebody else’s performance and never dig a
grave for yourself by being so exact that the chances of your timing being
correct are nil (how can a live performance always take 23 minutes and 42
seconds?). Have you thought about how
you should differentiate between the end of a movement and the end of a piece
and the end of the recital? Have you
thought how you should prepare to play the first note once you are out there on
stage?
All these elements are what makes the diploma recital so drastically different
from the graded examination; yet still students seem to think they are just an extension
of the same thing. No wonder so many get
disappointed when their results do not match their expectations.
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