So incredible to have this for free on RU-vid! Boris Berman is a famous interpret of Prokofiev's music, and this is high-level teaching that I could only have dreamed of back in college.
This is one of the best master classes I've ever seen. It was focused, cohesive and clearly presented. I was especially impressed, starting at 19:15 that he cautioned the student about the dangers of the percussive technique he was recommending, and rather than just saying "So be careful," he showed him how to monitor the muscle tension in the forearms. I didn't expect to stay for the full 31:21 minutes, but I couldn't tear myself away.
What a difference between the master and the student. From the moment the video starts you can tell the student "has the notes" but "not the music". Then Berman sits down and plays the exact same "notes" but the "music" of Prokofiev comes out ... experience.
I've enjoyed this whole series of master classes on several of these works. Especially this one, since I'm working on it. Berman is dead-on with his assessment. The student did get all the notes, but the style has yet to mature. I'm unfortunately having the opposite problem. I've learned much from this. I wonder if Prof. Berman is available to come to the Midwest. I for one would greatly appreciate it!
When I got to the section teaching finger staccato, a lewd joke came to mind, but creating a new account (after this one would surely get banned) is a pain, so I 'll just keep it to myself. All kidding aside, this is a beautiful piece of music, and the Precipitato is one of my favorite passages and always moves me. I tried to learn how to play it once but I gave up after a month, as I knew I would never be able to play it at a high level. Then I tried to turn it into a block chord heavy McCoy Tynerish original interpretation with my band at the time, but that ended up terrible too, so I guess I'll just leave that one to the top players in the world and I'll just keep enjoying listening to it.
@Errol Garden The pianists are sitting on what’s called an artist bench, or artist piano bench. Most likely from Jansen ... cost around USD 800 - 1,200 (for Jansen brand...other brands can be found much cheaper).
Oy. That must have been painful for Berman. He was very diplomatic, although there was small crack in the dike when the kid didn't even know the Brahms PC1...you could practically see Berman's eye's roll to the back of his head, lol
Le Professeur et très bon mais le pianiste semble ne pas voir que le piano est d abord et fondamentalement un instrument à percussion… qu il nous faut lineariser par la technique de jeu et suivant la partition…
@@konstantinkhachaturyan4279 Я так не думаю, на самом деле есть три типа инструментов: ударные (барабаны, фортепиано, клавесин…), линейные (скрипка, труба…) и смешанные (классический или электронный орган… линейной дихотомией) или для пения. инструмент всегда актуален, даже жизненно актуален для человечества, вот что самое трудное на фортепиано: заставить его петь снова и снова...
10:00-15:00 is a complete nonsense. physical laws of piano as an instrument makes this a non-starter and a nonsense. He is probably talking about some inner phychological game that brings out the imaginary sound of his but... this is a nonsense, we need to say this in XXI century. Piano is a percussive instrument unlike the violin say.
