Sometimes I wonder if Bach didn’t play all his pieces, like if some of it was just amazing ideas that he never expected anyone actually could execute. Like Van Gogh never experienced anyone buying a painting and on some level lived with thoughts like his work wasn’t worth anything to anyone except what he got out of making it. There was a nice discussion in class last year about whether to forget about the audience or honour them. The young woman who said forget about them insisted to think anything different was just vanity, was just imagining one’s self importance, whereas those defending the respect for audience believed it just as narcissistic to claim you didn’t care then why even bother making anything public ever? I liked what Freddie Stone said to me best, in that one magic lesson decades ago when he hit my reset button, “forget about the audience, forget about being concerned about the audience. They can tell if you’re pandering plus it disconnects you from your purpose.” Gave me a lot to consider for a long time.