I thought people might be interested to read this interview from the The Daily Telegraph with Alfred Brendel. I know there are quite a few of us out there, me included, who suffer from perfomance anxiety problems. I think it is helpful to realise that even experienced professional musicians suffer from nerves as well. I feel knowing this helps me to accept that some degree of nerves are probably normal and "go with the territory".

I also feel his comments on accuracy in performance are very interesting and I think he is quite right in what he says about us getting used to recordings that have been cleaned up. We are so used to hearing a piece of music played perfectly on a recording that we expect the same in live performance not only from professional players but from ourselves also. Making a few mistakes in an exam does not necessarly ruin a performance.

ooh interesting stuff! Thanks Lucia!

ye thanks Lucia, will have a read!

me too...love reading...

Yes, that is true about mistakes not ruining a performance but I can't convince myself this is true. :-\. Thanks for the link, will check it out