Nina Koshetz - Wonderful Russian voice from the past

I have been reading a fascinating biography about the wonderful musician Alexander Siloti, who was a cousin of Rachmaninoff's, and a favourite pupil of Liszt's. The biography mentions Nina Koshetz, a pianist and singer, who counted Horowitz and Rachmaninoff among her accompanists. For more information about her life click here

Koshetz went to America appearing in a few hollywood movies, and even opened a Russian restaurant.
Meanwhile click here to listen to her singing, and sharing a beautiful flavour of Old Russia that goes straight to the soul

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

funny piano comedy sketch

I was just looking at Alkan's Concerto played by Marc Andre Hamelin, which in some ways is quite a depressing experience.
Then by the kind of randomness in which Youtube excels, I came across Denmark's most famous pianist.

I must admit I laughed a lot...

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"

Inspiration.

This Monday I had the pleasure of enjoying a drink with my daughter Poppy on a red double decker bus, which has been converted into a vegan restaurant, situated on Brewer Street, Soho. This is very handy for my partner Jo-chieh to buy Japanese noodles at the store down the road.
Meanwhile at the British Library that day I came across some very interesting comments about inspiration by Plato:
"The muse inspires men herself, and then by means of these inspired persons the inspiration spreads to others... For not by art do they utter these things, but by divine influence... the poets are merely the interpreters of the gods."
Beethoven echoes this when he says: "A Rhythm of the spirit is needed to grasp the essence of music... What we attain from art comes from God... Music grants us inspiration of celestial sciences, and that part of it which the mind grasps through the senses is the embodiment of mental cognition".
Relating this to pianists, Schnabel writes: "Creativity is inspiration filtered by artistic conscience". Rachmaninoff too favoured an element of discrimination in his music making, as opposed to the musician delivering him or herself entirely to the wildness of the moment.
Should pianists be totally wild and inspired (like Nyireghazy), or cool and controlled (like Michelangeli), or wild in a calculating way (like Horowitz)? Or simply divine like Dinu Lipatti? Here's what mysterious Sofronitsky had to say (www.sofronitsky.com) :
" 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."

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.

PIano Playing Awards 2009

Piano music is " An international language that every nation knows and feels. Schumann calls it the language of soul to soul"
(Simon Barere, radio interview, New Zealand, 1947).
Here are a few highlights for you to enjoy. In the next couple of months I will turn this into a competition for you to vote on your favourite item in different categories.

Best Composer's Piano Playing

First Prize: The Master of Twentieth Century Piano Playing
Rachmaninoff performs his own Elegie Op3:3. Genius Comes Into Your Living Room

Grieg plays his own PIano Sonata. Such naturalness of heartfelt expression, such alive phrasing.

Best Live Performance
Josef Hofmann, Chopin G Minor Ballade, Carnegie Hall 50th Birthday recital.
"There is a technique which liberates and a technique which represses the artistic self. All technique should be a means of expression". (Hofmann, "Piano Playing' 1909, publ. Doubleday).

Best piano playing
Vladimir Sofronitzky plays Scriabin. Married to the daughter of Scriabin after the composer's death. It sounds as if the music is being revealed for the first time, spun out by some mysterious alchemy.

Best transcription performance, three entries:
Josef Lhevinne plays Schulz-Evler's transciption of Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz. Such flawless and musical virtuosity. Those who claim the modern pianist is superior technically to the golden age pianists should study Josef Lhevinne.

Myra Hess plays Bach
A world war 2 legend: while england was at war, London's cultural activity immediately ceased; but pianist Myra Hess persuaded the National Gallery to open its doors to allow weekly lunchtime recitals of music.

Percy Grainger plays Tchaikovksy "Sugar plum fairy". Wonderful playing from the pianist beloved by Grieg.
When on tour, he used to jog from one american city to the next. Didn't he even care about air miles?

How to Play the Piano
Such freedom of the upper arm! Such naturalness! Such breath! Such lovely printed fabric! We bow.
Magda Tagliaferro Saint Saens Concerto 5

Most disturbing recorded fragment
Bela Bartok playing Chopin Nocturne in C sharp minor
Did a minor key ever sound this spooky? Did the bogeyman abduct the musician?

Loveliest tone award: after 0.50.
Alexander Siloti's was a favourite pupil of Liszt. Some said he was more than equal to the great Rachmaninoff, and this playing has such a warm, living tone, like the golden voice of a tenor, characteristic of the finest Russian-school pianism.

Erwin Nyiereghazy (at 6.53) Liszt Legend 2. I believe this is how Liszt himself performed - free, full of imagination, wild, strong, passionate, individual, spiritual, heartfelt, with never a care for the judgemental bourgeoisie.

Best virtuoso playing: (three contestants)
Alfred Cortot playing Saint-Saens Etude en forme de Valse
Horowitz went to him for a lesson but Cortot would not reveal the secrets of his lightness within power!

Ignaz Friedman playing Chopin Etude in C at 3.05

Dinu Lipatti making light work of Liszt

Best Chopin Nocturne
Moriz Rosenthal Chopin D flat major. Rosenthal studied with Liszt AND with a favourite pupil of Chopin's; so his style deserves to be treated with the greatest respect, even though it may appear too personal for the modern ear.
Ideal for the moonlit reverie with your beloved (and/or hot water bottle).

Best Folk-Style Playing
Ignaz Friedman Chopin Mazurka
Such rhythm and mood! Spot on! 100%. Now if this spirit and lifetime's learning could be sold in a bottle...

Bela Bartok plays his own Rumanian Folk Dances
How wonderful! How humble! How truly civilised! Such musical phrasing! Bravo Hungary! (And Rumania).

Best 2-piano Playing: Arensky, Waltz from Suite, played by Harold Bauer and Ossip Gabrilowitsch. Wow! Did you know that Ravel dedicated Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit to Harold Bauer?

Best Left Hand
Simon Barere plays Blumenfeld's Etude for the Left Hand in A flat major opus 36 at 2.45

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.

Urspirit

Dinu Lipatti once said, very wisely, that it is more important to interpret music in the correct spirit than to spend time worrying about the historically correct musical text ('Urspirit not Urtext). The authentic original musical text does not really exist: Chopin, for example, would send his manuscripts to three different publishers, each one receiving a different version from the composer, who would be frequently revising his music, and amending his pupils' scores with yet another variant of the same piece. How can one even think about a definitive score? The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

In modern conservatoires pupils are trained to play the correct notes. This is, sadly, a grave misinterpretation and trivialization of the intentions of classical composers.
Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, to name but three, would all perform their music spontaneously, with strong feeling, leaving an indelible impression on their listener. It was not uncommon for audience members to faint during a performance by Liszt, as did Anton Rubinstein. Wrong notes were of no consequence - the strength of feeling, a spell cast on the audience, now that is worth going for.

Chopin's advice to pianists was not to practise for more than two hours; to listen to opera in order to develop a singing tone at the keyboard; and in between times to view works of inspiring beauty, such as paintings in art galleries.

The modern pianist, who has often been misled by conservatoires and betrayed by the whole system which seeks to 'commoditise' music, is practising 8 hours a day, worried silly about hitting a wrong note (why 'hit' any note at all?), playing Beethoven's Tempest Sonata without ever viewing Shakespeare's play of the same name which inspired it. And we are wondering why audiences are feeling unmoved?!

Schumann wrote about the Philistines who were controlling and commoditising art, and saw his role as the little man, David, who could stand up to them, and speak out for genuine contemporary art, if only for a small group of fellow believers. He could this group the 'Davidsbundler', and wrote a piece called Davidsbundlertanze for them.