In STEPHEN HOLDEN’s New York Sunday Times (Nov 4, 2012) music review of the film, A Late Quartet, he states the credo of any musician worth being called a true musician:  The film “has an important point to make about classical music. For the musicians who play it, especially intimate chamber works in which the group members have to think, feel and breath as one, their instruments are vehicles for conveying strong emotion. Without passion, a performance, no matter how impeccable, is just a technical feat.”

Whether it is chamber music or a Mahler symphony, if there is no passion, no commitment, no personal understanding, no love, then there is no reason to be playing.