I want you to try something, he said. What, I said. Let’s try playing with exact intonation, he said. He played the notes on the piano, I played them on the cello, correcting them until they were exactly right. All I can say is, huge difference. There is a bad habit I have acquired, and that is accepting approximate intonation when I play. If it sounds approximately like the song I’m supposed to be playing, close enough for government work, as they say.
But now that I have heard the difference, I know this to be false. Even if the intonation is very, very close, too close to really hear that the notes aren’t perfect, you’re playing a different instrument. When the intonation is perfect, the cello resonates differently. The body of the cello, and the other strings, resonate with the overtones in that perfect note.
Or something like that. Sounds great, in any case.
Doesn’t sound like such a cheap cello, I said. Even expensive celli are like that, he said. They don’t sound really brilliant until the intonation is perfect. When it is, then you notice the difference.