I just wanted to share this funny article I read from Stuart Isacoff’s Natural History of the Piano (highly recommended!) regarding a recital “gimmick” written by Wanda Landowska:
“A certain pianist… hired women for twenty francs a concert to simulate fainting in the midst of his playing of a fantasia (that he) attacked so fast that it would have been humanly impossible to carry on at that speed to the end. Once, in Paris, the hired woman, having fallen soundly asleep, missed her cue; the pianist was playing Weber’s Concerto. Counting on the fainting of this woman to interrupt the finale, he had started it at an impossible tempo. What to do? Flounder like a vulgar pianist or simulate a lapse of memory? No, he simply played the role of the hired woman and fainted himself. The audience rushed to the help of the pianist, who was all the more phenomenal, since he added to his lightning performance a fragile and sensitive nature. He was carried backstage; men applauded frantically, women waved their handkerchiefs, and the fainting woman, waking up, really fainted, perhaps in despair at having missed her cue.”
That. Was. Hilarious! In a few days, I will be playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Banda 31 Wind Symphony in my native city of Tarlac. If I am such an entertainer, maybe a creative fainting might be a good idea! The piece’s famous melodies, jazzy chords and excitingly difficult repeated and running notes beg for a sensational moment like this. I cannot imagine myself doing it though… maybe the conductor should do all the fainting?
I wonder how audiences would react to something like this. In my experience, modern classical music goes are very conservative. I know that they might be interested in creative extra-musical ideas but a scheme like might not work.
DARREN MATIAS | Musician 
One response to “Creative Fainting”
Hi Darren,
Thank you for the interesting post.
I wonder if you like the idea of adding multimedia and non-standard stage lighting to your performance.
Shalom!
שָׁלוֹם