'Is Talent Enough?' Mitsuko Uchida starts the debate 

1) Desire/Need to express yourself via music 2) Intellectual Ability/Intelligence 3) Technical Skills/Virtuosity 4) Character/Moral Compass 5) Charisma 6) Luck/Music Politics/Business (ie. we need a super sexy female or a handsome man to sell records! or we need to create a star from _____ market to increase sales!) I agree.

I totally believe her when she said "I would be playing music even if they did not pay me" Seeing her play is amazing!!

“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”

She is really a brilliant artist

"Being a musician is not a profession but a vocation" my new life motto...

she is badass. you can see and hear how focused she is and how damn hard she has worked in her life. she is totally badass.

A strong work ethic married to a little talent will get you further in life than lots of talent with a poor work ethic will. It's useless having talent if you don't work at it.

thank you, very well said maestro uchida..." taste,talent,technique,charisma,character can be developed and aquired, but are not enough to make a musician, music is a vocation not a profesion, music should come from a strong deeply rooted urgency to have to express once deep emotions though music and nothing else."

She is very elegant and very true. I have the utmost respect for her. The level of her expression and her layering the topic is impeccable. If I may be so bold, I think she is pretty strict about her first criteria. There are numerous talents in history, both geniuses and hard workers, who exceed in multiple areas such as art, music, literature etc. as well as philosophy whose questions are the result of innate human instinct to think about everything which no doubt relates to human creativity/imagination and most importantly linked immediately to human intellectual ability and resulted in today's scientific endeavors which derived from the capacity of this brain. So while human brain is most efficient and reaches its full potential when working in one course of study, it seems pretty uncertain whether that specific human is born with an innate urgency for only one area or multiple. The end result of course is to be molded or not by this urgency but this at the same time goes hand in hand with level and direction of infant's initial years of encounter with the outside world and then the aspect of toddler's guidance, all environmental experiences and perspective of parents (which are all a portion of that individual's luck) and finally that grown up individual's own efforts with his/her constructed psychological state; all encircled by sheer luck. You may say that all that I've written is linked only to that person's life after birth but the truth is all I've written is actually linked to whether that person will be able to blossom that innate urgency or not. Tough conditions or ideal conditions both may have negative as well as positive effects on this journey but this doesn't change the fact that this person carries that innate urgency which sometimes erupts suddenly but it also should be accepted that there are many situations in which this unlocked potential bides it's time or else never ever surfaces. So in my insolent opinion, this seems to be an extremely complicated subject to accept a definitive principle. Excuse my over the line thoughts and thank you for your time.

what a fascinating personality!

I don't think you can fault Uchida for speaking honestly about what it means to her to be a classical musician. She's penetrated so deeply into the repertoire she plays, it's not surprising that the world of banks and technology and death metal does not interest her so much. Her extraordinary playing shows the success of that kind of absolute commitment and absorption for the music she plays, music which she knows full well most people don't care about.

Fascinating how while speaking English, she has a European accent, but with the intonation of Japanese

So encouraging and true. What an example to artists everywhere. Truly one of the greatest pianists of our time.

I think one of the profound "luck" moments for her career was when she was able to record the Mozart concertos and sonatas. Previous to her recording those landmarks, she was known for her Chopin and Debussy. Her contract to record Mozart came out of nowhere, and the rest is history as she's now one of the greatest interpreters of the classical period.

The smoothness of Mitsuko...there's no way you can get confused when she plays Mozart's piano sonatas or concertos, you just feel it's her...and all these abilities are far beyond any of the items she counts in this interview. I believe Mozart has one of his best performers ever.

Mitsuko, you certainly have character!

It's stunning... that the insights of the greatest musicians of today are captured and let loose on the inter-webs. Thank you BBT & RU-vid for this posting. This was fantastic - and I agree with Mezzotenor, that I'd love to hear her talk about ... well ... anything she dam pleases. What a brilliant artist.

MITSUKO UCHIDA IS THE BESTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Charming person!

4:11- Classical Music is an acquired taste. (True, and too bad more people didn't have taste to begin with)

Makes me super motivated to play more, I have had it a bit rough lately, and unfortunately that affected my time playing the piano, but seeing Mitsuko just talk about it has given me the motivation I was searching for, thank you very much

The work should often match the talent and in many cases, exceed the talent. I've enjoyed listening to her points and it's okay to disagree with them. She shared her personal views and left us to take them how we wish. Beautiful interview, indeed.

She herself is perhaps the best illustration of her central point: She clearly has a deep desire to COMMUNICATE with as many people as possible, even acquiring the ability to do interviews in various languages. I wish there were a way to pose more questions to her, because I want to hear more of her thoughts. She was a well chosen participant in this forum.

What a great artist! Thanks Mitsuko

Indeed to be a musician is a privilege, the most noble kind of vocation (even though I am not a professional musician, I am corporate technologist). Music shapes our souls and is the outlet of our deepest feelings. Mitsuko is one of the greatest of all great musicians that shape our souls and help us understand our deepest feelings. Wish her a long long fulfilled life!

I love this woman. She doesn't speak a word of BS and gets to the bottom of it every single time.

She is the only pianist I know who talks a lot.

She may be the most interesting, most articulate person in public life today. To pay attention to her words lifts your spirit as well as your understanding.....magnanimous!

I'm glad she said luck was involved. A lot of people discount the importance of being born into the right circumstances and meeting the right people at the right time when it comes to being discovered.

"Being a musician is a vocation"--- very true -- I would adapt that to say "Being an artist at what you do is a vocation".

Cutting right to the core. She is exactly right in every single sentence she uttered.

Ich finde, sie hat damit vollkommen recht. Die klassische Musik muss man fühlen und dabei Spaß haben. Man muss nicht der beste sein und die schwierigsten Stücke spielen es kommt nur auf ein gutes Gefühl am Klavier an und dann geht der Weg von alleine weiter!

Magnificently and cleverly put forward. Thank you. For those of us who are looking for the real meaning, accent is nothing but a flavor :)

I hope future parents continue to listen to classical at home and immerse the entire family in it. As Uchida says here, it must start at home first, then school. There is no other way. I see many parents today are forgetting and disengaging from it. The environment is all. May we never forget this unique gift to the world, and to human souls.

She is a very friendly person! I talked to her after her concert.

The simple fact that she concluded that "everybody can argue about everything else", shows how true and open she is. And that's how every musician should be, truthful and open. But, no fear.. I do really agree with everything she said. Hats off to this musician.

it's really amazing that you can listen to people like this

Number 1 indeed.Passion,love and necessity first.These three things are the basis for any artistic talent in my opinion.Everything else is an extension of that,whether its the technique,the hard work,the intellectual complexity,the charisma.Everything comes from that fire,that spark and passion.Talent means great love and necessity for your Art.The greatest talents throughout history did not have special powers or anything,they only had a greater LOVE for their art than most people.And to quote Mr Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

Although she expresses a bit differently from the the way I do, we are saying essentially the same thing: talent is love plus time.

It is also something you are born with. You must have a born talent to paint/sing or have that art within.

*People are born with musical talent.* There must be an early and inherent facility between mind and fingers and ears so that the music can be realized. Otherwise, I mostly agree with Dame Mitsuko’s assessment. I’m a developmental psychologist and a classically trained musician, so obviously I’ve thought about the manifestation of talent.

Thanks you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing Uchida with us.

She is magic . Whenever one sees her speaks she is 100 % engaged . I think one would have to be terrifically accomplished to become a student of hers. She mentins Pierre boulez .I am waiting for the day she records 2nd sonata!

Of course. Mozart is a prime example of this. His father exposed him to some of the finest musicians and composers in Europe during his tours, and he learned vigorously from them. Ones mental state is equally important regarding self-improvement. People often attribute ability to heredity. Although, even if there was some genetic basis for ones ability, it will most likely be a miniscule influence.

Talent may not be enough, but it's quite necessary. I haven't heard any great players without it.

She’s wonderful!

Geniuses are born, not createt. AMAZING

All seriousness aside for a second - She's dead accurate about the banks being loony! :D

Just amazing

Beautiful video, thank you. I think Maestro was talking about focus and presence when she says "music and nothing else". I think this is true for music and the performer. I'm not sure if it has to be so, as others have commented some musicians have dabbled in other arts. I suspect that to be a performer requires a single mindedness and that's what Mitsuko is expressing here.

What are you then if your a dedicated pianist and composer yet you have the desire to draw, and write poetry?

Uchida's discourse is as brilliant and insightful as her performances-- which are among the valuable treasures of the current era. i would also add hard work and concentration which is inherent in what she stated but i would bring this to the fore as well as the intellectual abilities which she highlighted--You must have the ability to absorb the classical repertoire,

She is wonderful .... Thanks million ....

Mrs. Uchida, you are wonderful, you have a very beautiful core, spirit and soul, in one word: YOU ARE THE BEST!!!...♥I LOVE YOU!!!... ♥

I think it is also important to "feel" what the composer was thinking of. If there is background information about the composer when the piece was written, or just to hear the vibration of the air, and feel what the composer was thinking about

If music is the focal point and achievement...and not the expression of life itself...we are now in a philosophical discussion, not a discussion about music at all. Felix Mendelssohn was a painter and a composer. Mozart painted..and I am quite sure that many other composers could do fine arts beyond just their musical abilities.

I'm sorry for I cannot express this in some fancier words but her speech is freaking funny. She straight out said what she wanted to said and didn't care about how to make the listener agree with her. Yet I still can't disagree =))

Hear Hear...perfectly articulated...thanks Mitsuko...

I think it is such a shame that so many comments on this video express negative emotions. This woman is so full of positive energy and love.

"You must be lucky." I got to agree with her. I'm lucky to be hired by employers who love Classical music a lot and paid me decent salary to keep pursuing piano studies!

She is so kind and shine

By her definition we'd have to count out Alfred Brendel.... He writes poetry too.

the way i interpret what she said: if you split your energy among too many other things and in trying to solve too many problems in the world, you won't really get to do the one or two things you truly want to do in life. brilliant woman. bill evans had a similar mentality too. he had some beautiful playing

Thank You

todo un placer saludar,MITSUKO

Can passion and desire lead to talent?, that is my question

Well, i agree with her, there's very little that one is born with and a whole lot that is acquired from hard work, sitting in a piano alone, dreaming to achieve what she's achieved. Being a musician really is a privilege. Also, about the fact that the problems of the world don't concern her, i believe most of u didn't hear that she said they don't concern her bcuz she has nothing to add to those matters

I'm stunned! This lady is one lady extraordinaire!!!!

What a light and energy

She is such an inspired woman to me! i love her

Not a profession but a vocation

Not to disagree with Dame Mitsuko, certainly, but to add a few words: Love, of Music, but also of self, of life, of the audience; secondly Perspective. From these two other words flow; Dame Mitsuko’s modesty gives her Grace and proportion (not everyone has it); with Clarity she focuses on the particular while still mindful of the whole (few do this). Above all, the Joy of her soul comes through her playing.

While I've been told I have great talent, I haven't dedicated enough effort to fully develop it. I feel like I've fallen short of my potential. Success isn't just about talent; it also requires hard work and dedication, especially music.

i can add to her point on luck.... there's rarely pure luck (lottery winners)...... but luck is preparation meets opportunity.... if one does not prepare oneself then even the opportunity comes one cannot meet it because of under preparation.

Sie ist sehr passioniert . Ich fühle eine Verbindung zu einem Samurai. Haben Sie Dank❣

Uchida is the pianist I admire the most.

I love this video. There is one thing that I'm not sure she addressed and that was idea of "what is enough?".

how about expressing your emotions through various media? if one of them is music, does it make you a non-musician?

She is so adorable!!!!

Technical ability IS something you´re born with, Mitsuko, don't be so modest.

Brava!!

This thinking is so limited. When you apply your process of "how to play it" to other forms (painting, writing, pottery, calligraphy, theatre) its all good and all the same, but it's only that you don't have time for all of it when you have a big range. An artist's success depends on more than neverending determination, ingenuity and thinking outside the box. IMO, most important to success is that the artist must have nothing or no-one getting in his way, and talent, seemingly, has almost nothing to do with success, Talent only has everything to do with brilliance.

True wisdom.

If something is difficult or impossible to define in words, that doesn't mean it is entirely subjective. We can try to explain taste as "appropriateness", "a sense of efficiency", or beauty in terms of symmetry, proportion, naturalness... but words inevitably fail. That doesn't mean beauty & taste don't exist objectively, it just means words are too limited to express it, except via poetic allusions. Taste can be expressed through works of art & music, but they are beyond verbal description.

That explains it! I have none of the above is why my playing doesn't sound like music to me. It's mainly due to not knowing how to use the rubato & dynamics. So important; otherwise, you're simply playing notes, and not playing music. Hmm, those are beautiful, relevant, internal, natural abilities. There's also external attributes that are required; such as, devotion, determination, and desire. If you don't practice, forget it. And practice makes "permanent" so you'd better do it right. ( :

I love her pronunciatioooon

OH my god! Her rants near the end really shape out what type of character she is. Basically," I don't give a shit about the world, and the issues, let other people talk about it " - "Being a musician isn't a profession, its a vocation" - Please tell that to all the hard working musicians all over the world who started late in different years of there lives. Its creative job like any other. What's "talent": It's so complex and difficult an answer, all you have to do is go out and experience it.

What an excellent video. Now back to the keyboard!

You can apply these principles to almost anything. That’s what I’ve done …. which ? Tennis!

I realize that she qualified this as her own opinion before the beginning of her statement, but I cannot disagree more with her first point that if you have a drive to create using media other than music then you're not a musician. Not everyone is willing to put themselves in a box. Especially not highly creative people.

important to understand that raising the kind of pianist she's talking about is becoming more and more impossible

I agree with her points. But today, charisma seems to be phasing out and replaced with strange facial expressions and physical antics at the keyboard. For young female pianists, scantily-clad clothing seems to be a must which provides a distraction from the sound they produce at the piano. Horowitz, Rubinstein, Michelangeli and others sat almost stoically at the keyboard and produced wonderful sound.

well said

To me, talent is a seedling gift from GOD. What, where, why, when and how you nurture this seedling is what makes you mediocre to genius. Think of a theme and variations and what a person can do in this medium. A person's degree of effort, work, imagination, scope, awareness, and need to express one's deepest inexpressibleness of soul; to me all this grows and develops one's talent gift.

This filmed address by Mitsuko Uchida is the starting point for a public debate, Is Talent Enough? at Royal Festival Hall on Saturday 18 May at 11am. It’s one of many events 17-19 May to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT). Mitsuko Uchida is a founding patron of BBT and will be leading a whole host of former BBT award winners in three concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Attendance to the debate, masterclasses and late night concerts are all free - come along!

what she said was very true.

being a pianist can be a curse

ピアノは、仕事なら、９０パーセントの力で、100％の素晴らしさをだしましょう。高価な演奏能力を身につけて欲しいって。

are there seaguls in the background?