Unlike a high-wire walker, I don't think any musician strikes the wires of a piano or draws a bow across a violin's strings primarily for the kick of an adrenalin fix. There is danger on stage, but dropped notes are not broken bones; a memory lapse is not a tumble to the ground.
Nevertheless, anxiety is there and for some it is a paralysis, either of the very ability to play, or at least of the ability to "play" - a carefree verb suggesting freedom, joy, exuberance, even ecstasy. For some, according to the documentary Addict's Symphony, which recently screened on Britain's Channel 4, the effect is so intense that the only way to control it is with alcohol and pharmaceuticals. But there are other ways to manage the overwhelming panic that can set in. Unless we are incompetent at what we are meant to be doing onstage - and know it - the presence of anxiety is, strictly speaking, illogical and a topic for psychologists, not musicians. The nervousness reaches deep into our childhoods - our desire to be approved, our fear of being rejected. Our nakedness on stage is an exposure to judgment, and one that we have initiated.
In superficial terms, to have an orchestral career is to be better than others; it is a form of survival. For, say, a horn player, the possibility of a split note - basically, when the wrong sound comes out - is a daily audition, an "interview" on which continued employment hinges. It is no wonder that the name Richard Strauss - his epic exposed solos - strikes fear into the hardiest horn player's soul.
For those of us with less pinpoint moments of risk, perhaps the first step in overcoming anxiety is to recognise its source: our ego. If we were to look beyond ourselves, to the music and to those for whom we perform - the composer, the audience - we may begin to unravel the fear haunting us, which can result from an insatiable need for approval and admiration.
And beyond this truism, might we actually be able to embrace our nervousness? Most performers need this form of excitement, this whiff of danger, to be at their best, and the risks that come with a live concert are also part of its allure.