This week, I had a deep conversation with one of my longstanding, classical-music-loving piano students.
Remarking on one of her latest etudes, she said that playing it in different ways reminded her of the difference between photography and painting. How, in photography, everything is realistically captured and informational, and yet painting brings in the painter's interpretation and feeling for the subject.
This took me back to an art class I observed a while back, where the subject was a lady sitting on a bench, and at least a dozen students were painting her in different ways.
In this way, a parallel can be drawn to how many piano players can take subtly different readings of the same piece, even when it's classical music that is otherwise so well-recognized in the musical canon. Additionally, although sheet music offers players much guidance and information about the piece, there is always room to read between the notes and markings to offer new interpretations that are not always written down in the sheet music.
In new possibilities and interpretations of classical music, there lies freshness and hope for the future of historical music.