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!

Wonderful Brazilian Pianist

Guiomar Novaes (1895 - 1979) was considered the finest lady pianist of her day, and every bit the equal of Hofmann and Rachmaninoff. She was "A musician by the grace of God" according to the New York Times.

Just listen to a minute or two and you will become converted to the warm charms of this veritable Queen of piano playing, who sprinkles gold dust with every note.

Enjoy!

(for more information about this remarkable pianist click here)



Standchen, song by Strauss, transcribed for piano by Godowsky
(another version exists transcribed by Walter Gieseking)
"Sit down! The darkness is mysterious here / Under the lime trees"

Albeniz Tango, transcirbed by Godowsky

Today's top 3 pianists

Enthusiasts of Golden Age pianism are perhaps at a disadvantage when it comes to listening to modern day pianists - there has been such a large change of taste, parallelled by the large change in the world's culture and society over the past half century. But there are many many wonderful pianists out there, not all of them in the limelight. Here are three first class living pianists on the stage- may they live long and prosper!:

Grigory Sokolov
plays wonderful Baroque (among other wonderful things).

Radu Lupu
In recent recitals Mr Lupu looks every bit the reincarnation of Brahms.
Not much out therre in the way of interviews, but there is a good interview in "Great pianists and Pedagogues (interviews with Carola Grindea)" published by EPTA
If you click here you should get Schubert's Fantasia for two pianos, performed by Lupu with Murray Perahia

Nelson Freire plays Saint Saens concerto 2.
What wonderful flexibility, lightness, relaxation during a live performance! Hat's off!

Sofronitsky and Rachmaninoff

I cannot resist sharing more comments by these wonderful artists about the nature of musical inspiration and soufulness:

First of all, a performance requires a will. A will- meaning to want a lot, to want more than you have now, more than you can give. For me the entire effort is strengthening the will. Here is all: rhythm, sound, emotion. Rhythm should be soulful. The whole piece should live, breathe, move as protoplasm. I play-and one part is alive, full of breath, and another part nearby may be dead because the live rhythmic flow is broken. Rachmaninoff, for instance, could create a rhythmic pulse that was unfailingly alive. He had the enormous artistic will of a genius. He had a greater will than any of the modern pianists. The same with Anton Rubinstein... [who] had an enormous will for hearing, for rhythmic life. And another point, most important: the more emotionally you play, the better, but this emotionality should be hidden, hidden as in a shell. When I come on stage now, I have «seven shells» under my tuxedo, and despite this I feel naked. So, I need fourteen shells. I have to wish to play so well, live so fully, as to die and still feel as if I have not played. I have nothing to do with this.

http://www.sofronitsky.com/publications/publication-03.html

Rachmaninoff said:
"Real inspiration must come from within: nothing from outside can help. The best in poetry, the greatest of painting, the sublimest of nature cannot produce any worthwhile result if the divine spark of creative faculty is lacking within the artist….
[the listener] should] “paint for themselves what the music most suggests"

Myra Hess

Martha Argerich's third husband, Stephen Kovacevich recalls that when he studied with the British pianist Myra Hess, she told him to play melodies 'as if coming from his back'. In this way, the musical phrase or line is longer. Whereas, playing from the hands or fingers, the pianist feels music in 'micro-units', dot by dot, and the long line is interrupted. As Rachmaninoff said: "Big line - big musician. Little line - little musician". (Never a man to waste words!) Schnabel once received a review of a recital which said: "Mr Schnabel plays semi-quavers like a convict counting peas"!
I think we should take Myra Hess's example seriously, and try playing from the back. Also, from an anatomical point of view, this brings strong muscles into play.

To inspire you while you experiment, here are some wonderful performances of Hess' for you to enjoy.

And for anyone wishing to hear a performance of Chopin's Nocturne in C minor op 48, which is sombre and powerful, here's the link

Solomon

On Mondays I often visit the National Sound Archive at the British Library in London. It's a great resource for pianophiles! You can listen to such an array of great performances from the past. Also you can consult books from their archive of literally millions of books. I had a look at Solo, a Biography of Solomon Cutner, perhaps the greatest British pianist of the 20th century. Solomon's first teacher was a pupil of Clara Schumann, and his next teacher a pupil of Leschetizky. Solomon wrote:
In teaching technic, I avoid excessively high finger action. Some teachers make so much of the up-motion: I make more of the down. The first aim is to teach a pure legato. Many think they are playing legato when they are not. And no doubt the effort to lift the fingers high is the cause of much of the strain that prevents a pure legato... (p151, Solo, by Bryan Crimp).
And what a peerless pearly legato his playing has!

Another matchless legato I admired this week is a rare recording from the BBC archive of Dinu Lipatti playing Liszt's La Leggierezza. Wow! It reminds me of Mozart's dictum: 'the notes should flow like oil'...

More prize winning performances

Best newcomer
Aimi Kobayashi plays Chopin Impromptu In A Flat, Op. 29
She appears very inspired, and as a consequence so is the listener. Way to go Aimi!

Most visually alarming left hand playing
Warning: do not show this to young children before they go to bed.
Evgeny Kissin playing Rachmaninoff Prelude in B flat Op 23 (at 1.14)

Best Hair (male category)(1.10)
But Not Enthusiastic about the piano playing of one of Radu Lupu's teacher.

Best Shirt (male category) (1.28)
Joseph Villa Liszt Valse-Impromptu in A-flat major
And the jacket is pretty good to. And with lovely supple and musical playing. A very fine post-war pianist whose life was all too short.

Summary of disconnectnetdness

I would like to summarise the current state of dislocation between the Golden Age of pianism and our own 21st century pianism.
1) Golden Age pianists were pupils or grand-pupils (pupils of pupils) of Liszt and Chopin. This regal lineage rather died out around the second world war.
2) Golden Age pianists learnt to improvise and compose, and perform their compositions, in the lineage of their teachers. With very few exceptions this again died out by the second world war.
3) Golden age pianists often played with their arms extended, in the style visible on photographs of Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Grieg, Debussy and others (Radu Lupu these days does the same). Also with free arm weight. In modern pianism this is out of vogue, and elbows are often pinned to the side, leading to a degree of stiffness which is anathema to freedom.
4) For Golden Age pianists, the strength of spontaneous expression in the playing is paramount, so that the listener experiences a recreative force, perhaps equal in strength to the inspiration experienced by the composer at the moment of composition. Todays conservatoire teaches an altogether more controlled study and execution, the word execution meaning both realisation and death, as in the expression 'the operation was successful but the patient died'! If the listener does not come away from a piano recital having felt a powerful stream of inspiration, something has gone badly wrong.
5) The Golden Age pianist was frequently religious, looking on their pianism as a grave vocation, frequently compared to the priesthood or monasticism: Liszt was not the only pianist to take holy orders. Many moderns pianist have become more commercially motivated, as has the industry as a whole. The ultimate intentions of a performer affect the source to which one looks for inspiration, and consequently the nature of the outcome.
6) Many though not all Golden Age pianists explicitly preferred the sound of Bosendorfer pianos, which are in general rather lighter than the more assertive sound of the Steinway piano, which is now in use by the modern pianist in almost all major concert halls. With the Bosendorfer, sound was cloaked more delicacately, and the poetry of emotions was suggested rather than stated.
7) The Golden Age pianist often limited the amount of time spent practising, Chopin and Rosental recommending two hours a day, Hoffman recommending a generous 4 hours a day to his pupil Cherkassky. The modern pianist may often be practising 6-8 hours, which may make the ear less sensitive, and harden the natural suppleness of the arm. It may also result in boredom, as reported by Richter, (and occasionally some of his audience members!)
8) In consequence of 7), Golden Age pianists often made time to be polymaths, of wide ranging cultural learning (Moriz Rosental being a shining example). Many modern pianists are spending so long in repetitive practise and travel that they have no time for cultural research, resulting in a narrowness of context in their appreciation of the music, and if the performer does not fully appreciate the music, then the audience certainly will not.
In short, in order to go forwards, we now need to go backwards in time, with some urgency.

Play piano in the manner of the Greats, part 1: self-expression

Dear Pianist,

To play in the style of a great pianist, you need to learn to express yourself freely at the piano.
As Nyiregyhazy said: " I'm not trying to impress anyone, I just want to express myself".

On youtube you can hear Albeniz in 1903 improvising at the keyboard, just as Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and others have done before him. Some say the dryness that some find in modern pianism stems from the rupture of this tradition of performer/composer during the 20th century.

Two paths forward:

Path 1. Learn to express yourself more freely when playing compositions by other composers. Here are a few hints.

A) Separate your playing from your practising. Your playing will be freely experimental, with no one to rap you on the knuckles. You can be indulgent and even overindulgent. Whatever you are feeling, express it in the music.

B) Choose expressive miniatures - early Chopin, early Debussy, early Scriabin, early Rachmaninoff...

C) play with flat finger tips, with the expressive pads of the fingers. Cortot would say: draw your arms toward the body, as if you are embracing someone you love.

D) many people find it easiest to play first thing in the morning, or late at night, try it with the lights dimmed, take your glasses off, or keep your eyes half shut... any emotion in your heart wants to travel to the piano strings via your finger tips without any censorship or commentary from the brain.

E) If others can overhear you, you might feel self conscious. To get round this, either play when the building is empty, or buy an electronic keyboard and headphones, so that noone can hear you.

To take things to the next level:

2. Learn to compose and/or improvise. You might consider a few lessons on keyboard harmony/harmony to get you started if you haven't developed this skill until now. As a spin-off, this will make it much easier for you to memorise and penetrate music in general.

You could read the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for general inspiration on following a creative path.

Good luck and enjoy!

Manifesto

From the heart, to the heart' as Beethoven said. And classical piano playing had real life and emotional communicative power in the 1920's, 30s and 40s. Since then, pianists appear to have become judge and jury in their own demise, and for many listeners, rather than being a life changing experience of higher revelation, piano music has become reduced to the sort of anodyne background music you hear in the hotel lift. Let us first diagnose this downfall, and then point to some positives.

Four elements conspired to alter public taste: recordings, competitions, modern instruments, and larger halls.

Aided by the increasing interest in higher fidelity commercial recordings, a different aesthetic of piano performance was gradually forming in the 1950s, 60s and onwards, which now favoured a clean sound, rather antiseptic, free of smudges, free of irrational individuality. For repeated listening at home, many people would rather have an LP which was straightforward, rather than an LP which was revelatory and demanding to listen to! So producers of record companies wielded more and more power, and projects became defined by convenience - 'there's a gap in the market for complete Satie, which pianist can be relied on to learn quickly, play cleanly and not have tantrums in the studio?And he/she must look good on the front cover'. Rather than preserving the voice of a lone genius. Pianists, with a monkey sitting on their shoulder, that fearful knowledge that audiences are able to compare recordings carefully at home on CD ("O, he's slower than Michelangeli at bar 54"), seem to have cultivated a zone of self preservation, an unwillingness to take risks, including that greatest of human risks: expressing deep-felt emotions. Late 20th century pianists - the cultivation of artificial pearls.

International jurors are also responsible for shaping the product that emerges before the public. Contestants have been rewarded for playing conservatively, since a straightforward interpretation which is accurate, loud, fast and crowd pleasing is more likely to gain the winning vote in the gladiatorial colisseum. Do the maths: if the choice is between two pianists, with seven jurors, the pianist who plays straight may be marked 7 out of ten by all jurors, total 49; whereas one who plays in a 'visionary / mad / genius' style may be marked say 10 out of 10 by two jurors who are sympathetic, and 5 out of 10 by the others who don't believe the public will accept him/her, total 45. In brief, individual artistry is out, and accurate sportsmanship is in. This process has shaped (or maimed) the taste of a generation of concert goers (not to mention the damage done to the ears, hearts and fingers of aspiring pianists who have played Liszt's Sonata one billion times in a quest for technical perfection).

While record companies and competition juries have shaped a less colourful product, the piano manufacturers and concert hall managers have too played their part. Instruments have become heavier, halls bigger; with so many seats to fill, the managers again are more likely to play safe in favour of artists who will hit all the right notes night after night.

This background has a consequence on the technical production of piano music. In matters of tone quality, older pianists (such as Anton Rubinstein) favoured a fuller sound through 'free fall' technique, whereby the weight of gravity is used in falling on the keys with grandeur; this technique, however, came at the risk of hitting adjacent wrong notes (since the hands were falling from a dangerous height - hard to control). The modern pianist, being risk averse, prefers to play the keys from closer distance, thus ensuring accuracy, at the cost of tone or timbre. The modern audience, listening at home on a CD, appreciates the clean sound, and gradually the appreciation of the aesthetic and emotional advantages of the older, richer sound, has been lost. The depth of raw emotional communication has been sacrificed for a pre-packaged cleanliness.

So it seems, gone are the longer, resonating sounds and the grandeur of emotion of a bygone era. For an echo of a distant era try listening to Ervin Nyiregyhazi's account of Liszt's Legend no. 2, or, to view this pianist's technique in action, try Blanchet's In the Old Turkish Harem Garden' on youtube. Warning: pianistic adult content!!

Will an appreciation of the older aesthetic ever return? Or is this a futile wish, like harking back to the days of the horse and cart? Should we return to candle-lit soirees in intimate venues, an age of patronage? Instruments which are slightly lighter and capable of Chopinesque poetry as well as Lisztian strength? Is the world ready for a reinterpretation of the piano recital?

This blog and my web site, matthewkoumis/com, will be posting detailed appreciation of such masters of the golden age of pianism as Josef Hofmann, Yves Nat, Sofronitszky, Alfred Cortot, Josef Lhevinne, Ignaz Friedman, Dinu Lipatti, Annie Fischer etc referring to specific technical elements as described by pianists in their memoirs, and as visible in recordings and videos on youtube. My posts will include recommended reading and listening, and recommended repertoire for those pianists wanting a kind of 'Great Pianists Boot Camp', in the comfort of your own home! Points will include: hand position, position of the thumb, pedalling, phrasing, repertoire, concert suggestions, and useful links. It is hoped this will stimulate discussion and inform my older and younger colleagues in the international community of pianists, and enable a reawakening of appreciation of genuine pianism, as it was so to speak in the days 'before the flood'!

With best wishes to fellow enthusiastic pianophiles, and also to those who may yet be converted! 'From the heart to the heart'.