Who was the greatest piano teacher of the 19th century?

The candidates for this prize must include Chopin, Liszt, Leschetizky, the lesser known Ludwig Deppe, and Rubinstein (Anton).
Form a teacher does one seek a cogent method, or the passing on of a bright flame, burning and hard to contain?
About Chopin we have many comments from pupils, collected in a wonderful book by Eigeldinger, which I came across quite by chance in the town where it was published when I was giving a recital in Neuchatel in 1989. Chopin book. Chopin's teaching methods were geared toward refined, musical, singing, supple playing. With his high prices and aristocratic manner, Chopin was the teacher of choice for the female Parisian aristocrat, as witness the dedicatees of the majority of his piano music (eg Madame la Baronne de Rothschild for Waltz Op 64). But he did not leave a strong team of publically performing disciples to carry the flame.
Liszt did attract many ambitious male pupils, including Sauer, Siloti, Rosenthal, da Motta; and with Liszt one has a stronger sense of a lineage of playing (via for example Siloti to Rachmaninoff, or d'Albert to Dohnanyi to Ervin Nyiregyházi) but descriptions of his classes, while inspiring, are not the sort of thing you can put in a bottle and replicate.
Likewise Leschetizky  and Anton Rubinstein - fine pianists both, but in an inspirational rather than a methodical style. Rubsinstein's star pupil Josef Hofmann asked him how he should play a certain note and got the reply 'play it with your nose for all I care - so long as it sounds right!" According to Artur Schnabel there was no such thing as  a Leschetizky method, but this did not stop some of Leschetizky's pupils attempted to cash in on his cachet! eg Leschetizky Method (?!)

. 

As of today I am awarding first prize to Ludwig Deppe, whose Deppe Method is EXCELLENT. It makes sense, and unifies disparate elements of the playing process, such as the needs for elegant movement, effortlessness, concentration on musical tone. Granted it was written over a hundred years ago; but the instrument of the piano has not changed, and his advice can be taken with a pinch of salt here and there. Having read probably 150 books on piano playing, I think his is the best.

Avoid Forum Auditorium Taipei

Hmm. 5 weeks after my lecture recital and still not received payment from the concert hall. Many aspects of the management at Forum Auditorium were not the standards you might expect at a professional concert hall. If you are looking for somewhere with a good piano and good acoustic to give a recital in Taipei I sadly recommend you find somewhere else (until there is some change of management).

Piano Competitions and the Wizard of Oz

I don't know if you have watched the classic movie the Wizard of Oz? When Dorothy finally arrives at Emerald City and peeps behind the curtain, she realises that the mighty Oz was an illusion. Smoke and mirrors. I have been wondering the same about piano competitions recently. So much huff and puff, and... are the rewards actually worth it for the performer?  I decided to conduct an objective experiment to evaluate - are the winners of piano competitions actually getting the solo recitals that their efforts deserve? Here is how I conducted my experiment.

1) I checked out the results of the two most famous competitions: Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, and the Leeds Piano Competition, UK. A full table of winners is here: Leeds competition winners. I decided to randomly select 5 prize winners from the past and check how many recitals they have advertised on their websites in the coming 6 months.

2) Using the wikipedia table, I assigned a number to each prize-winner as follows: top line, Federico C. is number 1 [1-6 reading L to R]; 2nd line, Sofya G. is number 7,  [7-12 reading L to R]etc.

3) Then I visited a 'random number generator website,  'random number generator website, and selected five numbers between 1 and 42. (In my case it gave me 15, 1, 9, 41, 38). So this gave me the names of five Leeds prize-winners between 1993 and 2012.

4) Then I looked online for the websites of these performers, or their agents, and found their concert schedule / concert diary / upcoming engagements etc.

5) Grand total. The number of solo recitals in the next 18 months for the five prize-winning pianists, all added together into one big total, was ... drumroll... 25.  So an average of five 5 recitals per prize-winner over the next 6 months.  Some of these recitals were in pretty small venues such as the tiny Scottish town of Nairn (8,401 population). [Nairn Community and Arts Centre (15 November 2013),  Holy Trinity Church, Nairn, 16 November etc, for Alessandro T., performer number 9].

Now I am absolutely sure that these competition winners play better than me, and that the concert-going public of small towns are great listeners, I have no doubt about it. But the question remains: does the evidence suggest that competition winners are genuinely launched into productive careers on the solo platform, or not?

If you want to check other competition results, I challenge you to find out how many upcoming recitals you can find by Ayako Uehara, 1st prize winner of the Tchaikovsky piano competition.
Is their effort worth it? Perhaps not. You probably know how hard it is to win a major international piano competition, right? Think becoming a brain surgeon, winning Miss World / Mr Universe, and learning to write Arabic.

The point is, perhaps the concert-going public is no longer buying the whole piano competition thing. Consciously or unconsciously, have we reached a tipping-point where people realise that a gladiatorial system is not best suited to expressive artistry? Perhaps the public is over-saturated with pianists performing very similar repertoire (Gaspard de la Nuit, Liszt Sonata, etc), so that it may have become a disadvantage to be a competition winner. 

What the public IS buying is pianists who have NOT won competitions. Paris and Tokyo and New York are buying Yuja Wang, Arkadi Volodos, Yvgeny Kissin, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Daniel Barenboim, Valentina Lisitsa, etc etc

1st prize winner, Vienna Piano Competition, playing Gaspard de la Nuit with his left hand alone

But, I hear you cry, what about great performers who have won competitions?  Like Radu Lupu and Daniil Trifonov. Well, I suspect that, like Yuja Wang and Volodos, they would have come to the attention of concert agents, the public, and record companies, with or without competitions.

I admit any counting method is open to debate: pianists may have failed to update their website; or you need to search in the home language of the performer (eg in Japanese for a Japanese winner). Having said that, if you look up Yuja Wang's upcoming schedule, it is pretty clear, even if you don't search in Chinese script.

But I am not asking you to accept my figures  - be brave, take a peek behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz, see what is (or is not) behind the curtain!

Rosina Lhevinne

Just heard a great story from my friend Professor Lynn Raley. The illustrious grande dame of pianists, Rosina Lhevinne (teacher of Van Cliburn and wife of pianist Josef Lhevinne), was due to perform Chopin E minor concerto at the tender age of 82. She was asked by an interviewer on radio how she went about preparing for public performance at her advanced age. In a high pitched Russian accent she replied: Well young man what I do is to dim the lights, close the door, and lie on my couch, with my music score on my lap, and then, very slowly and deliberately, I finger my passages.

Upcoming Lecture Recital

Piano Mastery Secrets Unlocked 

Part 1: Rachmaninoff and his circle

Lecture recital presented from the keyboard by pianist Kong Tienxi (Matthew Koumis) in English, with visual presentations and simultaneous Mandarin translation (90 minutes total duration)

Works performed include
Liadov / Siloti: I danced with a Mosquito
Tchaikovsky / Pabst: Lullaby Op 16:1
Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G-sharp minor Op 32:12
Strauss / Godowsky: Standchen Op17:2
Rachmaninoff: Lilacs Op 21:5
Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C minor Op 23:7

Through what alchemy does the early 20th century Russian school of pianism succeed in touching our hearts so deeply? And what role did literature and painting play in inspiring their piano compositions? Technical elements, including fingering, pedalling, tone production and phrasing, will be explained from the editions, writings and recordings of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943); his piano teacher Alexander Siloti (1863-1945); his senior colleague Paul Pabst (1854-97); and two pianists whom Rachmaninoff greatly admired, Josef Hofmann (1876-1957) and Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938).

 Booking through this link here; Tickets: 300 NTD, unreserved.

new concert series in Taipei

I've been asked to promote an exciting new series of concerts for young performers aged 17-19 here in Taipei. Just click for details in mandarin, or contact me for english language info! Good luck everyone!

click here for concert details

wouldn't wish to change a note

Here is a trio of classical music performances that really capture the different moods of relationships just right. As Moriz Rosenthal said, "it's not servants of art we need, it's masters!" and these are all masterful interpreters.

For Russian singing these days you can't beat Anna Netrebko, in Rachmaninoff she is superb, also in Rimsky Korsakov; if this doesn't remind of your passsionate first love... as Anna de Noailles wrote, music promises more than love...

As for Rachmaninoff's friend Chaliapin, you can't beat this performance of Glinka for conveying the paranoid mood of the song to perfection, this really makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

But if it's vocal style of piano playing you are looking for, Shura Cherkassky is your man, as in this setting of a Tchaikovsky Lullaby, transcribed by Pabst. When Cherkassky was asked what he had learnt from his legendary teacher Hofmann, he replied: "Pedalling, dynamics, general vibration". Well, his general vibration is sounding pretty darned good!

Radames Gnattali: beautiful Brazilian piano music

some magical fusion of jazz and popular song performed by the composer Gnattali

new recordings!

Hi everybody! I just uploaded three recordings to YouTube. Rachmaninov’s Preludes in C minor and G sharp minor, plus Manos Hadjithakis ‘Conversation with Sergei Prokofiev’ taken from his suite ‘For a Little White Seashell’, op 1. I recorded them in Forum Auditorium in Taipei 2 weeks ago. I hope you enjoy them! Here is Prelude in c minor Op 23:7

Teresa Carreno

The mind of the performing artist must be as cultured as that of the composer. Culture comes from the observation of many things: nature, architecture, science, sculpture, history, men and women, poetry. I advise aspiring pianists to read a great deal of poetry!

Wise words from Teresa Carreno, one of the greatest lady pianists! As a child she met Liszt himself, who urged her to be true to her own individuality while pursuing her piano studies.

PIano technique

There is a technique which liberates and a technique which represses the artistic self. All technique ought to be a means of expression.

I’m currently compiling a book of favourite quotations by the great pianists of the past. This quote by Hofmann is one of my favourites! People get a bit hung up about technique, but really it is not the main thing to focus on; after all, if you are going out on a friday evening to meet a friend, you are probably not focussing on how the wheels of the bus go round and round…

Piano recital review: Lynn Raley: Contemporary Piano Works by Taiwanese Composers

Lynn Raley (centre) performed Contemporary Piano Works by Taiwanese Composers, at the Chai Found 101 Auditorium, Taipei on June 8th 2013. On his left, composer Tsung-Hsien Yang. On his right composer Chiu-Yu Chou.

Professor Raley is a former student of Taipei American School, who has been making a special study of contemporary Taiwanese piano music. For the past 12 months he has been  Senior Fulbright Scholar, and Visiting Associate Professor of Music at  the National Chiao Tung University.

The evening’s programme consisted of 8 works for piano solo by living composers, three of which were receiving their world premieres. Three of the works were dedicated to Professor Tsung-Hsien Yang at the Taipei National University of the Arts by his pupils to celebrate his 60th Birthday. A related score entitled “The Joy of Keys” was freely available on the night, containing three of the scores by Chiu-Yu Chou, Yuan-Chen Li and Ching-Yi Wang together with contact details. Great idea!

I particularly enjoyed Chiu-Yu Chou’s Fluid Ripples (2012), one of three World Premiere’s in the programme: like a Jeux d’Eaux for our climate-stressed era. The tremolos of Ching-Yi Wang’s Upon the Night, A Whisper of Sky brought to my mind Takemitsu meeting Xenakis, soft-hued poetry meeting harder-edged logic. Tsung-Hsien Yang’s Albumblatter from Sansui Shack occupied its space with the well-formed assurance of a composer who has found his path, like a Brancusi sculpture. Mei-Fang Lin’s Mistress of the Labyrinthsounded to be the most pianistically challenging work of the evening, the exposed left hand passage work at the opening might frighten any pianist of a lesser calibre than Lynn Raley: but here, as throughout the evening, technical difficulties were surmounted and the scores delivered with persuasion and assurance. The audience seemed most intrigued by the Sound of Silence by Chi-Tien Lee: the pianist’s tasks included plucking strings within the piano, plus humming! Now that was a fresh moment!  It was an evening which will linger long in the mind.

My criticisms are very few: the sound of the Kawai piano was slightly hard: a better instrument would have lent an extra degree of velvety atmospheric languour which some of the music called for. The page turning was slightly distracting, but admittedly it looked a nightmare of a job!

Meanwhile the attractive venue was full, lighting and ambience were very good, the bilingual programme notes were helpful. It is to be hoped that Professor Raley will record his performance on YouTube at the earliest opportunity so that these works can find a wider audience that they richly deserve. Hats off!

Review: Piano recital Lin Shuennchin,Taipei, 8th June 2013

 Lin Shuennchin appeared at the National Recital Hall at 14.30 to perform Liszt’s first piano concerto and Rachmaninoff’s second concerto – but without orchestra! Instead, with digital orchestra. O brave new world!

On the stage: a Steinway concert grand with either side two huge loudspeakers; plus a pianist in the most handsome dinner jacket one has seen in a long time.

Every pianist learning a concerto faces a basic problem: how to practice at home without the orchestra. (For any reader unfamiliar with the process, one solution is to find a fellow pianist willing to learn the orchestral reduction, and then to practice with them on a second piano. Then, more recently a range of CDs became available called Minus One (eg Beethoven 3rd Concerto minus one) which contain orchestral playing without the soloist. The difficulty here is that the soloist and orchestra are likely to have slightly different ideas on tempo.)

Professor Lin has been working on an innovative new solution since 2007, a digital orchestral simulation such that the soloist can choose in advance and preset the tempo for different sections. Dynamics and expression can also be preset. He has already tried this out in public for about 10 concerti. This will undoubtedly be extremely useful for the next generation of soloists and students wishing to practice at home with orchestral accompaniment. The potential value is enormous.

So how did it sound in concert? The orchestra was deafening in the ff sections such as the opening of the Liszt concerto, and a simple adjustment to the volume setting would have helped. The orchestral sound quality itself was slightly artificial sounding, like an early digital piano. But the synchronicity of pianist and orchestra seemed fine – the small number of moments of unhappiness between soloist and orchestra could have been because of performer’s nerves – it was hard to tell.

Whilst the programme notes did have excellent stylistic analysis of the music, they gave very little information about how this digital system operates: “The orchestra sound Dr Lin manufactures is by Steinberg Nuendo as the platform and East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra as the VST instrument.” Eehh? I wanted to know basic information, such as how exactly does the pianist pre-programme the orchestral tempo/dynamics? how much computer knowledge would  a soloist need to operate this system? If it is for sale, how much does it cost? If it is not for sale yet, when is it likely to reach the market, etc etc.

As a public event it slightly fell between two stools: neither a demonstration of a prototype (since that would require some verbal explanations, and perhaps commercial marketing), nor quite a concert (since the details such as the volume of the orchestra etc did not seem to take into consideration the enjoyment of the audience). There may be alternative and more appropriate forums outside the concert hall.

It is highly praiseworthy that Professor Lin tackles such demanding works on stage with courage and skill, and is a pioneer of innovative technological techniques for the benefit of the musical community.  Very good, but no cigar – yet!

Piano arrival!

Two minutes of musical happiness!

Two minutes of musical happiness encapsulated right there! 

No need to ask any questions, just sit back and enjoy! 

Stephanie Chou piano recital review 樂評：周佳臻狂放舞指鋼琴獨奏會

A very satisfying recital last night (28 April 2013) by Juilliard-trained Taiwanese pianist Stephanie Chou at the recital hall of the National Concert Hall.
The audience was a good size, the Steinway piano in excellent condition with a fine acoustic. The performer was well-presented in a flaming red dress and high-heels, and demonstrated good stage manner (happily avoiding the exaggerated mannerisms that were on display the previous evening in the concert hall by the Labeque sisters). The programme notes contributed by the performer were in Mandarin only, and my wife reports that these were helpful.
The opening number was the rarely heard G minor Sonata op 22 by Schumann. (The work opens with Schumann’s ‘Clara’ theme, the same descending motif which opens the great Fantasy in C.) This was a very confident and exciting presentation, with clear phrasing, well shaped and admirably well-prepared. Even in the face of awesomely complex technical challenges such as the coda of the fourth movement, the pianist kept her cool and delivered the goods. Brava!
Poulenc’s 'Hommage to Edith Piaf' is another rarely heard gem, and this received contented and spacious playing with many dreamy moments. Ravel’s 'Jeux d’Eau displayed perfectly controlled pedalling, with the pianist’s virtuosity excelling in the rapid sections on display, and a distinguished control of soft shadings. The fearsomely difficult 'Alborada del gracioso' perhaps needs just an extra ounce of carefree mastery to throw off the crisp rhythms with nonchalance, but the famous glissandi came off perfectly.
In the second half, we heard the teacher of Ravel, Gabriel Faure, whose delicious 5th Nocturne was given a warm performance, the swirling arpeggios of the middle section calling for controlled pianism, which was mostly delivered. The programme ended with Chopin’s great third sonata. What a big programme!
My only criticism is that, from where I was sitting at the back, there was a slight lack of volume in the climaxes of the music. This may have been the acoustics, but I suspect some technical weakness in the 4th and 5th fingers of the right hand: perhaps if these fingers could sink downward into the piano more - it would help to add extra volume at the top, allowing the bubbling sections to ‘sizzle’ more hotly whenever required. This extra electricity will further enhance engagement with the audience.  But despite this complaint, it was a very impressive and enjoyable recital.

Cortot on the effects of hearing his teacher's playing

The young Cortot wrote of Risler's playing:

"I immediately felt myself engulfed by the music; it was not just a matter of what

he was playing, but also his charm, his faculty to reveal - to communicate the

incommunicable. His unique way of making music overwhelmed me, it entered into

me, into my very flesh. Risler presented to me a magical world, which previously I

had only known as an onlooker. He opened my soul to the appreciation of a music

that was born of spontaneous inspiration. His feeling for orchestral colour was

something that I had never associated with the piano. From that moment I

understood how the vocation of the interpreter could transcend the metier of the

pianist, I knew... I could see... I believed, and I was clear in my vision."

 Well, through the miracles of YouTube, here's Risler himself performing Beethoven.

 

John Eliot Gardiner on the limitations of the printed score

Wow! A whole page about a classical musician in today's International Herald Tribune !

Keeping Bach in His Blood, by Corinna Da Fonseca-Wollheim, April 9th 2013

.... The watershed goes back to the 1920s, when instrument technology changed and continuous vibrato became the norm. Around the same time, the freedom of the interpreter began to be curtailed by composers demanding exact adherence to an ever-more-precisely notated text.

"It represents the absolute break of the tradition from Monteverdi to early Stravinsky, whereby the interpreter has freedom to use gesture and rhetoric and passion to articulate, vary and embellish what's written down, Mr Gardiner said. "If you think about it, the written page of music is so limiting".

...

MK: or, as someone else has said, "Music creates notation. Notation does not create music."

Great sense of rhythm! Goldenweiser and Ginzburg.

Rhythm is elusive. If you play just like a metronome it can sound just like a robot.
Rhythm should have a lusty sense of vitality, like a horse breathing, in a positive sense!

The best two pianists for rhythm that I have heard in recording are Rachmaninoff and Percy Grainger. The two have some genealogy in common: despite living half-way round the world from each other, they had related teachers (in Russia and Australia respectively)  brothers Pavel and Louis Pabst. Here is a two-piano piece by Rachmaninoff, dedicated to Goldenweiser, and performed by Goldenweiser with the astonishing pianist's pianist Grigory Ginzburg.
If you find your finger or toe tapping along, conducting in time with the music, you know that the performers can indeed say "I got rhythm!"

PS aficianados will find great interest in this interview with Ginzburg tucked away in the internet...
 interview with ginzburg.pdf

True music making!

Celllist Jacqueline du Pre shows how to make music in this short clip: at first she is playing Mozart politely on the piano, and chatting with her husband Daniel Barenboim, but you can start watching around 1:05 when the room practically catches fire as she switches to her cello and plays Brahms.

What a natural relationship with her instrument, while her heart shines through and connects with the audience. The re-creative art was alive and well with her during her all too brief career.

I remember her in London in the late 1980s visiting (haunting?) the Royal College of Music, in her wheel-chair, crippled by multiple sclerosis, when speech was a problem, attending concerts and after concert parties, breaking our hearts...

Great singer!

Intriguing video with director Almodovar. Brazilian Caetano Veloso  is a political activist and top calibre singer... a rare combination! He's won two Grammy awards. Born in 1942, still going strong, power to his elbow!

Amazing amazing dancers!

Gob smacking dance!

congratulations

Congratulations to my pupils Abhinav Tiwari who obtained 90 marks out of 100 and won first prize with Honours (highest category) in his class at Southampton Festival of Music, performing Faure Barcarolle number 1. To Mike Huang for winning first prize in his class at the same festival performing a recital of Brahms G minor Rhapsody, Cyril Scott Lotus Land and the rather tricky Poulenc Toccata - well done!  Maya Garside performed the last movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata with characteristic fire, and Emmy Huang gave a well practised recital of Haydn, Granados and Sinding (Rustle of Spring), but both were beaten to the prizes by performers several years older than themselves. Keep practising everyone! Slowly!

How to play the piano properly

It's easy to say, and very hard to do...

To honour the expressive power of the music, playing from inside one's imagination, where the freedom of the arm and hand follow the inflections of the music. Sitting vertically, head upright, with the forearms horizontal and wrists not higher than the knuckles, fingertips in close contact with the keys.

Click here to watch a video of Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola showing perfectly how to do it, brava!

Or here to listen to one of my distinguished teachers Albert Ferber playing beautiful Faure (comme il faut).

Diploma

Pleased to have passed my FRSM exam. That was a lot of work!

congratulations!

Congratulations to my pupil Abhinav Tiwari for winning First place in the Rotary Young Musicians Competition in Winchester this week. Chopin Fantaisie-Impromptu is a tricky piece!
Through to the next round. Keep up the good work!

The modern art world

taken from a very good article "Beyond the Froth and Jargon" in the FT by their art critic Jackie Wullschlager 24/11/12.

"The expansion of the artworld in the 1960s... rightly challenged the old elites... What could not have been predicted, however, was that within a generation of critical theory hijacking academe, a revolution in humanities teaching - employing semiotics, structuralism, the idea that culture and society form a system of self-referential signs and symbols - would empower a conceptual art that depends on curators and advisers to explain it. As this became a professional business, the chatter of deconstruction -lite morphed into a self-contained deliberately obfuscating gallery-speak that Robert Hughes already noted in 1989, "extorts assent as the price of entry" and urges a critical vacuum. "If all signs are autonomous and refer only to one another, it must seem to follow that no image is truer or deeper than the next, and that the artist is absolved from his or her struggle for authenticity", the late art critic wrote. ..

But the reign of theory is not inevitable. The best response is what Cyril Connolly called "the resonance of seclusion". Hundreds of artists still battle alone in studios to make authentic work that does not need a curator to explain it  (...Frank Auerbach, Howard Hodgkin...) There is a new hunger for work that engages with lived reality... Every age has to cut through its own academicism - salon pictures in the 19th century, theory and money today - to get to art that is original and matters: a challenge but also a pleasure.

Best YouTube piano videos clips part 1

Listening homework for my advanced piano pupils, Abhinav, Mike, Emmy, Maya

 Please set aside minimum 10-15 minutes per week to listen to great pianists.

Gradually you will get to know your favourite composers and performers, and so then you can explore them more. 
Please notice
+ horizontal forearm and flattish fingertips.
+ freedom of upper arm and forearm, while fingers stay close to keys.
+ upper arm and back muscles used when playing loudly (sitting not crouched over, not hunched)
+ Very intense concentration
+ very intense emotional expression

The Greatest Piano video of all time
Josef Hofmann plays Rachmaninov
Rounded movements. Beautiful hands. Inside the music.

Daniil Trifonov chopin scherzo 4
(slightly distracting facial expressions?!) Try and get tickets to see him sometime
in London in 2013. Possibly best young pianist alive (apart from my pupils!)

Ivo Pogorelich Chopin sonata 2 movt 1
If only I could copy his hairstyle! One of the most original pianists alive.

Gilels plays Rachmaninoff
Long pedals. Jumps around very fast and accurately!

Horowitz chopin ballade 1
Perhaps the greatest pianist of 20th century.
He makes you listen very carefully. Great concentration.
Unusually flat hands, much less curvy then almost everyone else! Expressive fingertips.

Mike and Abhinav

Zimerman Pathetique sonata Beethoven

Best YouTube clips part 2

Richter plays Schumann at 24.11 into this one.
Notice how loudly he plays his 5th finger - and often held very straight for repeated chords.
Fingers inside the keys despite huge arm flexibility.


Martha Argerich makes it look so easy! She is beautiful even in black and white!

Rubinstein plays Liszt Liebestraum

warm hearted, warm cantabile singing tone. best posture keeping head up!

Quite funny comedy sketch at the piano Victor Borge


such intelligent hands, perfect hand positions,
Jean Yves Thibaudet, at just before 2 minutes into this video (or 5.42 - 6.00)

perfect arm freedom
Alicia de Larrocha recital


Arcadi Volodos plays his own arrangement of Mozart’s Turkish March
Mr Rubber Fingers certainly knows his way round the keyboard!
Slightly annoying video editing at the beginning.