Informed performer vs informed performance: on the issue of terminology of the concept

- · 25.06.2026

Review article
DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2026-2-101-110

Yulia V. Glazkova

St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, St. Petersburg, Russia,
july-yufereva@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6348-2551
Abstract: Following a significant rethinking of the philosophy and ideals of musical authenticity, the concept of the performance tradition within it was also transformed: unsuccessful attempts to achieve pure «authenticity» in the interpretation of early music have given way to an understanding of the need for performers to possess reliable knowledge of the era in which a musical work was created, and to apply this knowledge in practice. «Authenticity» is considered in this article as a broad concept encompassing not only performance practice but also research in this area, and therefore, this term retains its relevance, unlike «authentic performance». An analysis of new English and Russian terms intended to reflect a current perspective on the performance tradition of authenticity and widely used in recent Russian musicological and music-critical literature — such as «historically informed performance practice», «historically informed» performance, «historically aware», «historically oriented», and «stylistically correct» performance — leads to the conclusion that they lack precise correspondence to the concept itself, are illogical, or excessively polysemantic. This article proposes a new, updated version of the term — «historically based performance» — which, in the author’s opinion, is literate, logically correct, and consistent with the essence of the musical tradition under consideration.

Keywords: authenticity, authentic performance, historically informed performance, historically oriented performance, historically inspired performance, historically based performance

For citation: Glazkova Yu. V. Informed performer vs informed performance: on the issue of terminology of the concept. Scholarly papers of Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. 2026;(2):101-110. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2026-2-101-110
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