Creativity Quote by Kurt Masur

Masur is doing something quietly radical here: demystifying the “definitive” Beethoven without demoting Beethoven himself. He’s not saying the canon is sloppy; he’s saying the objects we treat like scripture are, in practice, edited by humans under pressure, in shops with deadlines, in institutions with reputations. Berlin’s “very famous” musical library isn’t invoked as authority so much as as a stage for disillusionment: if even there the printed scores are imperfect, then purity is a fantasy.

The distinction he draws is the tell. “Not the wrong or false notes, but the wrong dynamic” sounds like a concession, yet it lands as the bigger provocation. Notes are the skeleton; dynamics are the voice, the ethics, the psychology. A wrong crescendo doesn’t break the piece the way a wrong pitch does, but it can warp its character, its argument. Masur is reminding us that interpretation isn’t decorative; it’s structural.

There’s also an implied defense of the conductor’s craft. In an era when fidelity-to-the-text can become a pious performance, he positions the score as a starting document, not a final verdict. The subtext is permission: trust the ear, know the tradition, check the sources, and don’t outsource musical judgment to print. “Understandable things” is generous, almost parental; he’s not hunting villains, he’s describing reality. The intent isn’t to scandalize Beethoven’s legacy. It’s to insist that responsibility for meaning ultimately sits with the musician, not the paper.