I love what Daniel Barenboim said to David Kadouch during his mastercalss : "do not apologize. I'm not trying to compare what you're trying to do with what I think it goes. I'm trying to make sure that may be I can help you to achieve more what you want yourself" To me, this is what a teacher should be.
My perspective is music is a personal creative experience. Once the mechanics of a piece is mastered, it is time to unleash your soul and inject your own interpretation of a composer's direction. I agree with your viewpoint and was delighted to hear your analysis.
Starting from 6:10, I really like the inside-stories you bring into your videos. Amateur pianists like me can also experience these doubts or contradictions sometimes, but aren't confident enough in their experience to question or even disobey some suggestions, so it's good to know that sometimes those contradictions are real.
I follow you, an uber teacher and player; I use all the modes and moves that I need to do what I need, for my interpretive purposes. I see great players using all kinds of different modes, so I figure it's good enough for me. I look to myself now, to work out the passages with the most comfortable and efficient ways for my hands, constitution and personality. I see very little that is either right or wrong in anything, in and of themselves, but my question is always about how to I achieve the goals that I want. My approach is eclectic, I find what works for "my" technique and interpretation and pursue that. I am far enough along the piano road to be able to judge myself and and figure ways to solve my own challenges. Everybody is different. There is a player who I regard as a phenomenal talent and brilliant player who does everything I do, in what I have come to, except one thing: She breaks at the wrist, that is flat, arms slope down nicely but when at the wrist, she flattens out and cranks up the hand very intentionally; I have mentioned it and we have talked about it. She is convinced that this is way the she needs to play. And her results are out of this world, a monster improvisor; she regards a lot of settled pieces as someone else's music and embellishes in turns and fits that are simply astonishing, not just musically but technically. I cannot play efficiently with a wrist that flat except for wide chords and a few other places. So, differnent strokes for different folks. I don't care to please the establishment; let the establishment fight among themselves. If I like it, that's good enough for me, not that I'm not competitive with myself for improvement and more expressive degrees of interpretation. I have been a life long singer, academy style Uni trained; I have slogged through a lot of those wars, contests and all, as a baritone. A lot of the stuff is political and simple bias without good cause. We had an old guy, Professor Emeritus, when I was a young student. Dr A. Old School German, would shuffle up and down the halls, teaching a little history here and there. His prophetic truth slogan claimed "There has been no good music written since 1900!!!" He was very liberal with this claim. My very fine theory teacher was a devotee of "contemporary"music and tried to take that prophetic oracle with a grain of salt, like many blowhard politicians. I have seen this stuff go down for decades and find it very counterproductive. I was discouraged in my vocal career trajectory by many of these pundits; rigid traditional thinking has done untold damage, mentally, emotionally even physically. Denis talks about the 2 phenomenal player/teachers who diagreed violently with each other. That is the story right there. I once heard a sales mentor on positive thinking rue, "There has never been an award given to a critic for criticism of others." Amen, great talk Denis. No right or wrong, good or bad, rather what is efficient and helpful for ones' purposes. We miss out on too much due to confusing and dogmatic "absolute truth" telling. No such thing in my book. End of sermon.
Denis himself-I now have gravitated to a much higher seat than Denis shows and wonder how he can play with as much ulnar deviation as he shows. But results are results: he doesn't get tired or tighten up and he is blazing fast with pinpoint accuracy and very fine gradations of absolute control to accomplish whatever he wants in terms of his vision for interpretive vision-absolute stunning results. Can't argue with it on any point. On a dogmatic theoretical basis the naysayers would find fault. I see none, but those guys fight among themselves while Denis is succeeding at the exceeding.
I concur with you that many people have too strong opinions on how to interpret some pieces or composers. Those conflicts arise in almost every academic field. I love the pedal in Bach, the fact that it didn't exist back then doesn't mean he wouldn't have ever used it. In orchestral music, there is the 'historically correct' movement that, for instance, would take out vibrato from a Mahler symphony, but I like it with vibrato so much more.
This is a natural process of confusing one’s own subjective truth with an absolute truth, which imho is non existent in art. It took me a few years to correct my own attitude and accept that what I don’t like may be still legit and has all the chances to find its own target audience.
Interesting, clever and useful as always. Some norwegian painter was rejected from an exhibition by a jury. Next year he sended drawings and paintings made by his child which were accepted. As John Cleese says in prolonging of the BBC´s comments of his pilot to Fawlty Towers: "People who just has to value others products has ab-so-lute-ly no idea about anything of what they are talking about.." I will soon buy some lessons from you.
You are such an inspiration and one day I hope to sign up for a lesson with you. This video demonstrates how complex piano playing is in that there is no one right answer to any challenge. What's unacceptable? As Ruth Laredo once said in an interview, "If it hurts, stop doing it!."
Yes, I always thought that there was a simple, clear answer for everything. As I continue to grow, I experience my teacher not always saying exactly how things are to be done. Now I realize my teacher cannot hold my hand through every challenge. I like how you mentioned the Bach pedal controversy; my teacher has always taught to use no pedal. I follow my teacher's method, although I think that Bach can still sound good with a little bit of pedal.
Man, this hits home - I studied for a grand total of 1 month when I was a kid - my teacher was an old, inflexible (in more ways than one, I'm sure) woman who had a child sitting next to her, listening and learning the pieces by ear. She kept forcing me to "read the damn sheet music" or "you MUST do so-and-so", providing no explanation, to which I'd play dumb and simply ask her to play the passage again. After the month was over I had enough and stopped. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I'd have had a less strict teacher with more patience - all she left me with was a strong distaste for musical elitism. But, 20 years later, I've continued to play to this day!
If Bach's c minor Prelude is played on an organ in a big church there is so much more reverb than when you play it with full pedal down in a small concert salon.
@@DenZhdanovPianist I guess Bach would have loved Wendy Carlos' versions of his Brandenburg Concertos played on synthesizer. Or the Partita c minor sung by the Swingle Singers. He wasn't such a purist as some "style-oriented" interpreters are misunderstanding him.
As far as I know he was more and then less restrictive in this regard throughout his different life phases. But that’s not essential since he is still on the opposite pole from Peraia’s attitude.
Having played bortkiewicz‘ second piano sonata (composed during the 2nd world war) for my pedagogy masters in zurich, i was pleasantly surprised that you too wish to popularize his music. Maybe with your immense skill you could deliver an amazing recording if his wonderful first piano concerto??
I would love to hear and buy any recordings by Zhdanov of Rachmaninofs 24 Preludes and 17 Etudes Tableaux. Countless subtle nuances are on another level.Kisins teacher always tried to awaken Yevgenys inner talent and creativity, rather than impose her own interpretive ideas.
I'm more of a music lover than pianist, but I'm surprised how many pianists seem to think "it's my way or the highway". In a profession where everyone is largely playing the same pieces, the diversity of interpretation is about the only reason they have jobs!
I wonder if you have some more advice on how you handle conflicting advice, for example from your two teachers when you were a teenager. Obviously, you will have to disagree with one and they might be mad. Then, do you come up with two different interpretations to please both teachers, or do the teachers eventually aquiesce?
One of the revelations I got when I was around 18 is that there is no teacher who can teach you everything, and who can teach you in such a way that you may satisfy all the other teachers. Since then I practiced a skill of listening to everything available over there, but being free of authorities and think for myself. Just one teacher I had was mad about the fact I studied with someone else. No big deal, he lost me very quickly.
Wonderful video. Thank you creating the series. In other’s performances, what I’ve come to detest is SUPER FAST playing. So you can play fast, that I can see. But where is the musicality if the blasting fast is not appropriate. Why? To get thru the piece in as little time as possible?
I totally understand. It’s hard for me too, accepting that many other players don’t share my values, and nevertheless honestly admitting that they can still be very successful, despite playing the way I find unacceptable. But I want to be free from bitterness and anger. It’s not easy, and sometimes I tend to answer to critique and opposite opinions more straightforwardly than I could. I keep working on accepting reality as it is and not letting what I don’t like affect me so deeply…
I think there's a line between playing in a way not everyone will like, and playing in a way almost no one will like. For instance, early intermediate pianists will often struggle to use rubato naturally. Is their use objectively wrong? No. But it's also something that 99.9% of high level pianists will say is bad. I think the danger in saying 'it's all just opinion' is that many lower level pianists will hear that and think, 'well I guess I can do anything I want, then!' I think it's important to learn how to do it 'properly' (ie within the bounds of what 99.9% of high level pianists would recommend) before taking too grand of jumps. In other words, if you can't play the piece in a way that most high level pianists would call 'boring' (rather than 'bad'), you shouldn't deviate _too_ far from the 'standard' way of playing it. But idk, I'm kinda just rambling here, I haven't thought this through too well.
Interesting. Now I wonder how often you experience the opposite scenario as a teacher, that is to say: you get a strong-willed student with completely different ideas to yours who insists on “their way”, and whether you can even have productive lessons with that person.
Depends on a situation, but I tend not to push hard. I am here to help, but if a student is not willing to take my advice, I am absolutely fine with it, and I can listen to them instead (some people need to talk more rather then to listen to me), as long as my time is paid.
Some people are lucky to avoid injury and fulfill their creative potential, despite inefficient approach, so I am not sure it’s black and white. But yes, it’s great to have it.
It’s peculiar what he does, but I can’t get through his recordings-they feel too monotonous to me. Every time I try to listen, I end up turning it off after just a few bars. To me, such static and lifeless playing is physically painful to hear. As far as I’m informed, the approach to time in music was far from static and slow during the 18th and 19th centuries. People then used much more freedom, rubato, and tempo changes than are often used nowadays. Some hints into how music was treated at the time can be found in the earliest available recordings and in special editions like Schnabel’s Beethoven Sonatas. From this perspective, I don’t see any particular “authenticity” in Mr. Ruchti’s work. However, I would be interested in reading his research, if there is any, to better understand his reasoning and see whether I might be mistaken.
Never heard about this pianist, so I immediately checked on YT: Santo Cielo, ma non ci credo uno scelga di suonare così! Thought I would die after few notes, not even bars... Don't believe it's only about tempi choosen according to who knows which historical research (ok, why not) but because Mr Ruchti's playing sounds devitalised and void. Sorry not for me.
Well, if done properly it works great for me and the vast majority of piano students I’ve taught, but some have difficulty mastering it and benefitting from it indeed, due to some extra clumsiness in the elbow.
Reading this powerful statement, I remember a splendid mastery of Miss Texas 2000 performing an unforgettable Sharzo by Shopan, by using “music is a universal language” hack to people’s hearts.
