Musician's Challenges

Mapman, Conlon Nancarrow was originally composing music for piano but when his music got very complex he couldn't find pianists to play it (especially in Mexico where he lived). He switched then to pianola and discovered completely new instrument. It is still music, but concept of a his music "Concert" is strange when you sit in the audience and the only thing on the stage is pianola. Why would anybody pay for that?! On the other hand his music played very loud in my room is beyond believe.

Anne-Sophie Mutter's album "Carmen Fantasie" is an example of the artist showing her chops playing very challenging violin solos.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000001GII/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Fast and technical and the violin is mixed far out in front of the orchestra. I've enjoyed Mutter's previous recordings but unfortunately this CD is not much of a collaboration between soloist and orch as Itzhak Perlman has always done. But it is audiophile quality and worth a listen.

So we're agreeing that the words "quality of the musician," in this context, means "chops?"

I was hoping this was going to be about musicianship and not athleticism.

Segovia has developed an awful right hand positioning for the standards of playing classical guitar after which as he aged he couldn't cope with due to the arthritis and other aging problems. Modern right hand positioning is way more comfortable(I remember my first classical guitar lesson and I jumped out of it right away because I simply couldn't position my wrist correctly!)
Anyways as Andres aged he couldn't play anymore and was playing sloppy.

Segovia's performance once left me speechless - seriously, I could barely talk for an hour after his concert - and he deserves considerable credit for popularizing classical guitar in the 20th century - but he was a sorry teacher. As John Williams (a far better player than Seogiva, imho) has pointed out many times, Segovia was dogmatic and insisted that his way was the only way. See the Michael Chapdelaine (my favorite player today) utube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiAbqfaYGwk

where he was kicked out of Segovia's master class for not playing something the same way Segovia did. Contemptible.