Rubens To me, playing a piece of music is not unlike reciting poetry, or telling a story. Inflection, emphasis, pausing, whispering, changing the timbre of the voice, speaking louder, or softer, slower, or faster, are all ways that the storyteller personalizes the interpretation. Yes, we'd all like to play all of the correct notes, in the correct order. But as musicians, or musical artists, shouldn't the performer, or artist, be given the freedom to tell the story in their own way?
There were plenty of timepieces pictured in paintings long before, and after, Salvatore Dali gave us his melted watches in "Persistence Of Memory". But which painting does everyone remember? Music is Art.