I found this performance of the Pearl Fishers Duet on YouTube. This piece always makes me want to cry and hearing these voices from the past seems even more poignant. Part of what makes this so thrilling is the sense of the connection in the spaces between the two voices. People bandy about the phrase creative tension but I think the phenomenon it names transcends that. Play this at my funeral please.
The power of rehearsal
Reflections on the power of rehearsal, from a master performer
13 December 2020
