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Recently, I had the opportunity to see and hear Yo-Yo Ma perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. Ma’s presentation of the music was stirring and evocative. Reflecting on the effect of that concert, I want to describe the experience of beauty we find in the human presentation of particular arts. The idea of performance keeps that evening in my thoughts, as well as how presentation by performers plays a significant role in certain art-forms.

When works of art are appreciated, their beauty begins to have an existence within those who encounter and engage it. This continues as we entertain those works within our imaginative and reflective consciousness. In this sense, these works of art may be said to inhabit us, having ‘taken up residence’ within our awareness, and sometimes in our dreams.

Artists convey something of the humanity we all share. They make available perceptions and insights personally important to them but which also become important to us. Artists do this by imparting aspects of their apprehension of what is beautiful, good, and or true. Appreciating their art, our perception is then made finer as we attend to their work, and as that work becomes part of us.

The creation of visual art objects such as paintings and sculptures generally occurs over a period of time, and usually happens in a private setting. Musical composition and playwriting have an affinity with the work of painters and sculptors. For writing music and plays also usually takes time and often occurs in a studio setting or personal study room. Upon completion of these works, whether paintings, sonatas, sculptures, or plays, the results may be offered to viewers and or readers. Parallel to how people often see the work of painters and sculptors, a musical composition can simply be read as a score, just as the text of a play may be read in silence by someone in a library.

In a sense, paintings are simply there. Paintings ‘speak’ in a limited way; they communicate something of an artist’s vision and experience; and, they are available for engagement by viewers who happen to, or choose to, interact with them. Yet, with works for the theater or the concert hall, something further and significantly different happens when a concerto or a play is ‘performed.’ With performances, features of the personality of the composer or writer – as well as those of the performers – are in a position to be displayed and conveyed.

Clearly, we recognize that what is shared in works of art is important to us. How musical or theatrical works of art are then presented can be just as important, especially as they are performed.

Within the visual arts, an artwork comes to inhabit the viewers who engage it. With arts that are performed, performers also inhabit the works they present. This has a significant effect upon our shared engagement with concerts and plays. And Yo-Yo Ma, as a highly skilled performer, provides a compelling example of what it means effectively to communicate a composer’s imaginative vision and passion to a receptive audience.

 

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