# Performance: Recital versus Recording



## AvidListener (Apr 15, 2021)

Should a musician play the same piece any differently (_musically_ speaking) when performing it in front of an appropriately sized live audience at say a recital versus performing it while making a recording for posterity (and/or for making money) in say a studio?

and Why?


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

AvidListener said:


> Should a musician play the same piece any differently (_musically_ speaking) when performing it in front of an appropriately sized live audience at say a recital versus performing it while making a recording for posterity (and/or for making money) in say a studio?
> 
> and Why?


I don't know what they "should", but many musicians play with more imagination in front of an audience than when they are making studio recordings. They take more chances as it has been described. This is the reason why live recordings also may be of interest.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

And those chances sometimes lead to errors that some artists don't want released. They want studio conditions so that they can make a record as perfect as possible. Some people can live with goofs on records, but I find it difficult. Fortunately, there are many superb live recordings with few if any errors at all.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Some performers avoided the studio if they could. Celibidache's recordings are all made from live events. Annie Fischer may have made only one studio recording and that was of pieces she had played and specialised in throughout her life (so that she felt she could feel she was playing to an audience even though she wasn't). The recording - of the 32 Beethoven sonatas - took her a long time as she worked on it until she felt it to be nearly perfect. Richter generally preferred performing live to recording in a studio and many of the recordings we have of them are from recitals and concerts. Many performers have referred to the feel for what works that they get from playing to an audience whose responses they can sense.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

I have no problem playing in front of an audience. The moment I know I'm being recorded, I start getting nervous and making mistakes left and right. With or without an audience present during the recording.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

AvidListener said:


> Should a musician play the same piece any differently (_musically_ speaking) when performing it in front of an appropriately sized live audience at say a recital versus performing it while making a recording for posterity (and/or for making money) in say a studio?
> 
> and Why?


Yes, and it depends on the work. Compositions that actually demand improvisation and ornamentations require it. But historical reports/letters reveal that great composers who were virtuosos themselves not often stuck to the score when repeating performances, especially if you go back further in time. It is only a modern day preoccupation with creating perfect replica performances one after another.


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