Purpose of performance

I was watching the culture show this evening, and there was a snippet on Tasmin Little playing The Lark Ascending at the 1995 proms- a performance held in high esteem.
After she played the final note there was a pause where the whole Royal Albert Hall stood still, and no-one clapped for 16 seconds.

It was such a beautiful, grand moment. Such an aachievement
Looking at her she was so totally in tune with what she was playing, a ssubconsciousreflex almost, carried by waves of emotion and mmusicality not thought.

It got me questioning the purpose of performance.
I've just come out of a year of classical performance which was a real hard sslog
Obviously, I know all the work I've done this year will pay off and it has made real improvements to my voice, but it really makes me question what the point of it all is.

Mrs Little no doubt went through at least 20 years of training before she stopped that audience for 16 seconds.
Eight hours a day. Many failed recitals, many criticisms.

It's up to her, and evidently she thinks its all worth it, but I suppsose thats what sseparatesperformers from non performers. The dedication.

But then, this is only in the world of classical performance.
One of the best experiences I ever had was listening to folk performers casually play on the street in a little folk festival i went to.

Spending hours practising, worrying. The stress and iimmediacyof the whole thing really puts me off. I can't enjoy a performance knowing that theres a man sitting at the back of the room with a marksheet writing things like 'the tone of the voice was generally pleasing, but the melodic line was broken in parts when the breath was unsupported.'
**** off.

I a lot of respects, I'd much rather have a guitar and sit and perform simple songs to unjudgemental ears, make a few little mistakes and really enjoy it.

What does anyone else think?