Is honouring the text such a bad thing?
Not being able to sleep the other night (again), I listened to a fascinating interview with the young British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. During it, he was asked about who his influences were. He immediately spoke of another British cellist, the late Jacqueline du Pré. He then made a comment which resonated: “She made a commitment to every note.” That struck me as quite profound. "She made a commitment to every note." For me, that says a lot about her respect (and his) for the score and by virtue, the composer and their work. She attended to the detail of their detail. She respected the work. I guess as a professional, she wanted to do it justice. And it reminded me of an adage, the origins of which are now lost to me: when you honour the writer, you honour yourself. When it comes to writing, I have no delusions. I’m a very small fish in a huge sea. But I am still very particular about what I write. My process isn’t quick. I can spend what feels like an eternity...