Music is like speech, there's a natural rhythm that we follow, but there are also times when we accentuate things for the purpose of expression. Rhythm is just one way to do that.

Another very Wilbert concept - to apply rubato to sound and not necessarily (just) to rhythm. What he means is to explore the infinite subtle nuances that are possible in the sound, before doing the more obvious concept of shifting the rhythm. As young learners, that's how most of us were taught to do, for understandable reasons. But it is certainly not the only way to expressivity. We should always be on the look-out for creating many more options and opening oneself to multi-dimensional playing. 

Just like how photographers should work with the subtleties of light and shadow. This is what will set one's work apart from others.

A beautiful example of rubato with sound by the very talented Yente Lottman. Notice she's using a combination of historical bow and modern violin. Understanding is the key, instruments are tools. You need to have good tools of course, but they remain as tools. 

Wilbert often said, "Don't play." We train ourselves so that we "don't play" in the end. 

This sounds so cryptic at first! But in the context of music-making, he's referring to how we should internalize everything so that we no longer feel like we have to "do something". The sound, the music just flows, emanates out of us. It becomes a part of us and is not something external. A classic example is say, a light pickup. More challenging is a light pickup in the higher register. Or a passage with many notes. We train to do something only to let go again.

In this way, playing becomes more and more effortless and you expand your realm. 

Wilbert Hazelzet once mentioned technique as a "singing virtuosity". I think this is the highest level of technique we should strive for. 

We are not playing to express technique, to express a rhythm, or to express notes. We aim to express something which is beyond the medium itself. Art is always about going beyond the natural boundaries of the discipline. Through all the complexity, we show the beauty of simplicity.