When I read of the past greats not practicing all I can think of is what a lot of missed opportunities to be even greater than what they were because of lack of practice. Milstein was an inveterate practicer who always said I owe it to my public to be at the top of my game because the people in the cheap seats have paid a lot of money ( to them ) to come and hear me. Heifetz was exactly the same , he also practiced a lot , even as an old man. When Segovia said the immortal words that John Williams was touched by the hand of God , Williams said he may have said that but he also told me to practice as if there was no time left in the world.

Wonderful article that explain what i listened to and why....Thanks frogman...

I understand better why i love him so much now WITHOUT being able to explain the shift from some perceived relative perfection and cleanliness in many other interpretations to the Szigeti spoken words in sentence where each word is destabilizing like a passionate love poem or like a discourse near an abyss before dying...

Thanks for this article so moving.... And now i can learn to listen to him in a new light....

This article confirm what i wrote: he never practice to reach a sound perfect for itself but he played like we speak to reach the more truthful articulation between "words"....

More than ever i think that this interpretation ressemble more of an improvisation and a volcanic eruption than to a beautiful perfect object...Like when someone speak we must read between the line to understand....And anyway human speech is too complex mystery to be understood completely in the deep , music is the same and linked to language like Szigeti taught it...Sometimes beauty only for itself deceived us but spoken words are always a window into the soul....

By the way i NEVER said that this interpretation was the BEST there is...

I said that i dont understand why this interpretation was so much powerful...

When we listen music like a child for the first time forgetting or putting aside our learned taste, we are ready then to open ourself to discovery...

There is no better at the end, only powerful suprizing meaninful new worlds of expression...

Music is not only object to be idolized for their perfection but gesture inviting us to a new kind of participation...

“For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so,
because it serenely disdains to destroy us.
Every angel is terrible.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies

« At a deep level every word and every chord is an angel»-Anonymus Smith

By the way jim you are absolutely right about practice...

All great musician practice, only a few one practise in their own way by playing

out of their comfort zone, improvizing like Szigeti and Miles Davis...

Some never practice but play each evening like Chet Baker who play minimalistic

like if it was his last  few words...

Ervin Nyiregyhazi play all day long from a very young age...In his mature years he practice no more and even did not  own a piano for decades...

No artist is the same...

But generally we must practice an art, save some few angel who are born with it...

I want to thank you very much to speak your mind, this is the RAREST quality possible and i admire your frank  and direct speaking...

I wish you and to all the best christmast possible in this impossible world

When I read of the past greats not practicing all I can think of is what a lot of missed opportunities to be even greater than what they were because of lack of practice. Milstein was an inveterate practicer who always said I owe it to my public to be at the top of my game because the people in the cheap seats have paid a lot of money ( to them ) to come and hear me. Heifetz was exactly the same , he also practiced a lot , even as an old man. When Segovia said the immortal words that John Williams was touched by the hand of God , Williams said he may have said that but he also told me to practice as if there was no time left in the world.

Since my Angel has saved my life more than once(no joke} I still think God knows

what he does .

This is my kind of music and players that do it.. And the best country they can do this in.