There were basically 3 distinct camps for piano music:
1) the admirers of the virtuoso school, who had no time for either Fischer or Schnabel
2)the so-called intellectuals, who were fascinated by Schnabel's analytical capacities, as manifested in his edition of the Beethoven sonatas, and who regarded Edwin Fischer as a sensitive and vivacious but purely intuitive, improvising type of pianist
3) the Fischer camp, looked of course upon the Schnabel adherents as being far too intellectual and rational.
It was through my friendship with Sir Clifford Curzon that I became aware that a musician could combine great flair and intuition with deep thought and analysis, and that this was the essence of Schnabel. Schnabel was criticised by the purists for being too emotional, and by admirers of the intuitive approach from being too cerebral. In actual fact there is no contradiction between these two qualities
Friday, February 29, 2008
Daniel Barenboim: Communication to listener
I cannot see music as a profession but rather as a way of life. Immersion, complete concentration, is condition sine qua non for the interpreter and performer, because the conscious projection of music for the pleasure of the listener instantly changes the character of a performance. We must not permit our thoughts to wander: the best way to communicate with the listener is to communicate with ourselves, and with the music we are performing.
Daniel Barenboim: Inner Ear
No matter what instrument you play, or whether you conduct or sing, you will only produce the sound you want if you can hear it in your head a fraction of a second beforehand. This is the part of music which is impossible to teach. I could teach people how to put down their hands, how to balance the two Ds, the three Gs and the three Bs in the opening chord of Beethoven's G major concerto, that there is a register where the note has a tendency to be louder, and that the thumb has more weight than the little finger. But if a student is unable to imagine the sound before he starts to play - even if it differs from what I am trying to explain to him - he wil never produce the sound he wants. This ability to hear the sound and the phrasing you want in the inner ear is one of the most essential qualities.
Daniel Barenboim: Creating perspective on the piano
The fact that the piano is such a neutral, uninteresting instrument is precisely what enables you to create far more colours on it. The basic fact is simple - you cannot produce a single beautiful sound on the piano. By combining a wonderful Stradivarious and a great violinist, a single beautiful note can be produced by varying the colour, the intensity and the volume of the note. With the piano, the concept of beauty starts with two notes. As soon as one note is softer or louder or shorter and you are able to articulate the difference between the two notes, you can begin to create and expressive sound on the piano. If you take this to its logical, almost ridiculous conclusion, you see that one of the most important qualities required for playing the piano is an ability to create what painters call a perspective. When you look at a painting, you can see that some elements appear nearer to you and others further away. The piano works in a similar way. It creates an illusion. you can create the illusion of legato. In order to make a prtamento sound like a singer, you have to go from one note to the next without breaking it. All the great pianists of the past like Busonior Eugen d'Albert - I can only judge this from recordings - had this aiblity in one form or another.
The notes on the piano are balanced in such a way that some seem closer to the ear. It means, as I have said before, that the two hands do not represent two units, but one unit, or ten. The independence of the fingers is all-important, and I can only recommend, with great emphasis, that pianists should constantly work at the fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
The notes on the piano are balanced in such a way that some seem closer to the ear. It means, as I have said before, that the two hands do not represent two units, but one unit, or ten. The independence of the fingers is all-important, and I can only recommend, with great emphasis, that pianists should constantly work at the fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
Letter to Teacher
Dear GTJ,
I got my diploma results today. I passed! Yippee!
All that hard work finally paid off. Goodness knows how many times I felt so frustrated and almost wanted to give up. Luckily I didn't!
I finally have the satisfaction that "I can do it!". I'm glad I conquered my weakness and played a 35 minute recital without breaking down. The marathon training analogy did the trick eh!
Thank you very much for your patient guidance and support. I couldn't have done it without you.
Yours sincerely,
Nodame Pearly
*mukya!*
I got my diploma results today. I passed! Yippee!
All that hard work finally paid off. Goodness knows how many times I felt so frustrated and almost wanted to give up. Luckily I didn't!
I finally have the satisfaction that "I can do it!". I'm glad I conquered my weakness and played a 35 minute recital without breaking down. The marathon training analogy did the trick eh!
Thank you very much for your patient guidance and support. I couldn't have done it without you.
Yours sincerely,
Nodame Pearly
*mukya!*
Daniel Barenboim: Playing in public
One of the dangers of playing in public is to be too conscious of the audience. In other words, you must not go on stage thinking you are going to impress them, nor with a strong wish to project this or that. I think the best communication between artist and audience occurs if the artist becomes unaware of the public as soon as he or she starts playing. The audience receives the strongest projection of a musical performance when the performer is concentrating solely on the music. But this, of course, is not always easy to do. I remember Rubinstein saying that he could never really work or practise if anybody was present. He told me the charming story that, even when he was in his hotel room and the waiter brought in the breakfast, he immediately and automatically started to play for the waiter. It was just not the same as playing alone!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Daniel Barenboim: Importance of Music
This experience during the Gulf War in Israel and another, in certain ways very different one, which took place in Berlin in Nov 1989 with the dismantling of the Wall, have made me reflet on the falseness of the argument that culture is something that one can devote oneself to or afford only when 'real problems' have been solved. It is an argument very often used by politicians who, when there is a need to save money, look first at culture. These two different experiences have made it very clear to me that music can and should mean something other than what this argument presumes the attitude of the public to be.
In Israel in Feb 1991, when the sirens sounded because of the missile attacks coming from Iraq, people had to get up twice a night, put on their gas masks, go into sealed rooms and wait for 5 mins to see whether they were to survive. This put tremendous psychological pressure on the population of Israel. And yet, as soon as it was safe to do so, the Israel Philharmonic started playing two concerts a day, at 12 oclock midday and at 3 oclock in the afternoon, because it was not safe enough in the evening. Only 500 people at a time were allowed in the auditorium, and they had to bring their gas masks. There was a real need for music to be played, for the musicians to be able to play and for the audience to listen. For some, it was a way of forgetting the tension of the night before, for others it was a moment to hope, of not thinking of the next night with the inevitable alarms sounding. In every case, it was anything but a superficial form of entertainment
In Israel in Feb 1991, when the sirens sounded because of the missile attacks coming from Iraq, people had to get up twice a night, put on their gas masks, go into sealed rooms and wait for 5 mins to see whether they were to survive. This put tremendous psychological pressure on the population of Israel. And yet, as soon as it was safe to do so, the Israel Philharmonic started playing two concerts a day, at 12 oclock midday and at 3 oclock in the afternoon, because it was not safe enough in the evening. Only 500 people at a time were allowed in the auditorium, and they had to bring their gas masks. There was a real need for music to be played, for the musicians to be able to play and for the audience to listen. For some, it was a way of forgetting the tension of the night before, for others it was a moment to hope, of not thinking of the next night with the inevitable alarms sounding. In every case, it was anything but a superficial form of entertainment
Daniel Barenboim: Importance of history
This sense of the importance of history was very strong in Israel. I was reminded of it when I began to study opera, where what you show on stage should relate in some way to life today. This connection between history and daily life is something I tried quite consciously to apply to operatic performances, but also to abstract music - symphonic music, piano music or chamber music - this awareness that something that was written two hundred years ago has great relevance today. This sense of Jewish history playing an active part in contemporary life helped me to realise that every great piece of music has two facets - one relating to its own period and another to eternity. And it is from this 2nd aspect that our interest in music that was composed two or three centuries ago comes.
Daniel Barenboim: Memory vs Recollection
(from A Life In Music)
I believe you need to contemplate and recollect at a distance in order to express something in music. The most passionate moment in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, for instance, can only be expressed after a certain degree of contemplation. Contemplation and recollection are as important to a performing musician as passionate involvement. There is a clear difference in English between recollection, and remembrance or memory. In music and musical performance this is an important distinction. A young man remembers and an old man recollects. Memory is something that immediately comes to your aid, whereas recollection can only come through reflection. Recollecting is an art for which you require skill in the use of illusion. To give a simple example: the sensation of feeling homesick although you are at home. This involves recollection and has little to do with memory. This is very important and creates a lot of problems for interpreters today, since we play so much music from memory. Recollection requires individual effort. Everything in musical performance depends on the power of recollection. In other words, even if you have learned Tristan und Isolde by heart, and know it by heart, and you can feel the white-heat intensity of the music, you must be able to recollect this white heat, not just remember it, and from one performance to another add up the sum of recollections you have.
I believe you need to contemplate and recollect at a distance in order to express something in music. The most passionate moment in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, for instance, can only be expressed after a certain degree of contemplation. Contemplation and recollection are as important to a performing musician as passionate involvement. There is a clear difference in English between recollection, and remembrance or memory. In music and musical performance this is an important distinction. A young man remembers and an old man recollects. Memory is something that immediately comes to your aid, whereas recollection can only come through reflection. Recollecting is an art for which you require skill in the use of illusion. To give a simple example: the sensation of feeling homesick although you are at home. This involves recollection and has little to do with memory. This is very important and creates a lot of problems for interpreters today, since we play so much music from memory. Recollection requires individual effort. Everything in musical performance depends on the power of recollection. In other words, even if you have learned Tristan und Isolde by heart, and know it by heart, and you can feel the white-heat intensity of the music, you must be able to recollect this white heat, not just remember it, and from one performance to another add up the sum of recollections you have.
Daniel Barenboim: Practising
(from A Life In Music)
For me, learning to play the piano was as natural as learning to walk. My father had an obsession about wanting things to be natural. I was brought up on the fundamental principle that there is no division between musical and technical problems. This was an integral part of his philosophy. I was never made to practise scales or arpeggios. What was needed to develop my abilities as a pianist was done exclusively through playing the pieces themselves. A principle that was hammered into me early, andwhich I still adhere to, is never to play any note mechanically. My father's teaching was based on the belief that there are enough scales in Mozart's concertos.
I often meet musicians who try to solve certain problems in a technical, mechanical way first, and then try to add the 'musicianship', like cream on top of a cake. The two must be linked from the very beginning because the technical means used to overcome certain physical problems will influence the expression.
I always practise the technically difficult passages first- separately and slowly - so that I learn to control and phrase them. one must resist the temptation to try out the right tempo until one has perfect control at the slower tempo. I never play such passages mechanically with the intention of adding the phrasing later. A technically difficult passage needs to be played more slowly until you learn to control it - but with the right musical expression. To separate the technical from the expressive side in music is like separating the body from the soul.
======================================
One obviously has to work, to train. But 'practising' is such an unmusical word. It is a problem of linguistics. In Hebrew, by comparison, the words art, training and faith have the same root, and I do not believe it is merely a coincidence.
All individuals have different spans of concentration. I have no strict rule myself, such as playing eight hours a day or no more than forty-five minutes. Both extremes are equally counterproductive. I never play a single note when my concentration is no longer at its height, for to do so would be to fall into the trap of playing mechanically.
For me, learning to play the piano was as natural as learning to walk. My father had an obsession about wanting things to be natural. I was brought up on the fundamental principle that there is no division between musical and technical problems. This was an integral part of his philosophy. I was never made to practise scales or arpeggios. What was needed to develop my abilities as a pianist was done exclusively through playing the pieces themselves. A principle that was hammered into me early, andwhich I still adhere to, is never to play any note mechanically. My father's teaching was based on the belief that there are enough scales in Mozart's concertos.
I often meet musicians who try to solve certain problems in a technical, mechanical way first, and then try to add the 'musicianship', like cream on top of a cake. The two must be linked from the very beginning because the technical means used to overcome certain physical problems will influence the expression.
I always practise the technically difficult passages first- separately and slowly - so that I learn to control and phrase them. one must resist the temptation to try out the right tempo until one has perfect control at the slower tempo. I never play such passages mechanically with the intention of adding the phrasing later. A technically difficult passage needs to be played more slowly until you learn to control it - but with the right musical expression. To separate the technical from the expressive side in music is like separating the body from the soul.
======================================
One obviously has to work, to train. But 'practising' is such an unmusical word. It is a problem of linguistics. In Hebrew, by comparison, the words art, training and faith have the same root, and I do not believe it is merely a coincidence.
All individuals have different spans of concentration. I have no strict rule myself, such as playing eight hours a day or no more than forty-five minutes. Both extremes are equally counterproductive. I never play a single note when my concentration is no longer at its height, for to do so would be to fall into the trap of playing mechanically.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Mozart Piano Sonata K576, D major
(this piece is also played by Nodame in Nodame Cantabile (Europe special)
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