Music might go out. We deeply feel sorrow for Celibidache's demise. We cannot forget the musical experiences he gave us during his concerts. These experiences speak deeply to our souls and make us realise the power of music. These experiences were always happy affairs. Since this kind of experience is rare, we fear that music may go out with him.
Art is a reproduction of an artist's' feelings. What we call art is the phenomenon of the appreciation of an artist's work by a viewer. In the case of painting and sculpture we stand face to face with the author of the work. Music, however, is interpreted for a performer and an audience. A composer could write only score on sheets of paper with a method of a notation which is very limited. It is a vital matter that a performer is needed between the composer and listener. Celibidache had such a role.
Celibidache has never really explained his attitude towards music. He sought to understand the composer's intentions and feelings by a thorough study of the score. His talent was in reproducing those feelings into hearts of an audience in performance. An audience relied on him to completely realise the composer's feelings in the transient medium of performance.
A man who had heard a radio broadcast voiced his disappointment that it did not make such a deep impression. Indeed we have never been impressed by recordings or broadcasts of a concert compared to the experience of being in the audience for a Celibidache concert. Moreover, in many circumstances, a performance was varied depending on the acoustics of the hall. Celibidache had sometimes remarked on this.
Obviously a performance was restricted in that it appeared only once within time and space, at least before the advent of recordings. A performer as an occupation should be respected for each performance. This situation must never be changed, in spite of the introduction of recordings and broadcasting. But it remains a fact that commercial performers cannot be responded to by a live audience. Today it is a tragedy that music and performances are evaluated in relation to recordings. We must not place the activity of music-making before an audience in the way of a Celibidache on the same level as recording an isolated series of sounds as in a recording. Celibidache had drawn a clear line between his natural way and commercial activities. It was a well-known matter. Celibidache needed the audience as interested parties, not just as spectators. And Celibidache was not understood by spectators besides the party concerned.
The great achievement of Celibidache is that he inherited a vision of music we lost by producing on a commercial basis. We who could be enraputured by his conducting and technique cannot hope to get this experience any longer. This must not be buried in oblivion that the reason for our appreciation is that he had focused on the true meaning of musical activity and established his own unique approach to performing. His originality was only one of many possible approaches to music. We are sad to lose him and his unique approach. This is Celibidache's legacy and it's absence will be our problem.
We have reluctantly encountered a great grief that we we must be bereaved of our Celibidache. We can no longer have the pleasure of his unique approach to music and performance. We had entrusted music to only Celibidache at all. This mistake of couselves must be irretrievable. We are seized with a fear without Celibidache since we have never had the same experience that he brought to us. He has gone away and bequeathed the difficult problem of the meaning of music to us. The age of Celibidache is over.