“Naturally also a performing artist needs precision, but it is not a precision of thinking, it is a precision of imagination of what another person (the composer) might have imagined.

A composition may be based on certain fixed intellectual structures; in performance however (even in performance by the composer) these become slightly irregular and flexible with regard to lenght, loudness and colour of each note.

In fact I must confess here, that during performance, thinking is (should be) a thing of the past: then, only the flexible piece of music exists.

If it would be possible to fix a perfect performance once and forever, and wearable to every possible scrutinization, then, Magnifico Rettore, I might have earned a real doctorate long ago.”

(G.Leonhardt, dalla lectio magistralis, Università di Padova, 24 ottobre 2000)