NEWS FOR STUDENTS
Happy Fall, Y'All! Well, almost fall, and it's one of my favorite times to practice, sneaking some glances out my window, waiting for the japanese maple to turn a glorious color!
Happy Fall, Y'All! Well, almost fall, and it's one of my favorite times to practice, sneaking some glances out my window, waiting for the japanese maple to turn a glorious color!
Is there a piano student among us that has not pondered, listened, while repeatedly playing passages, notes, listened more deeply, over and over, while trying to find the exact right sound level, volume, of the piece we are studying? Each of us must experiment with touch, arm weight, to create the exact colors we are after. In truth, this is a lifelong endeavor, but I always seek inspiration (and help) along the way. I recommend another Seymour Bernstein video to you, courtesy of a suggestion from student B.M., thank you! In this video, Ben Laude, who is wonderful in his role with Tonebase piano, takes suggestions given by Seymour. Please watch, listen, learn, and try some of these ideas for yourself. I promise you an amazing 26 minutes that I know you will find helpful for your own practicing!
So, to those of my dear students who are missing their lessons as I take a break - to PRACTICE ! - I can't encourage you enough to spend 45 minutes taking a lesson with Seymour Bernstein, teacher, composer, and lovely human being! In this youtube video called "Seymour Bernstein teaches Chopin's Prelude in e minor," you will garner much in the way of understanding music-making at the piano. You may have noticed at your lessons that I have Bernstein's book entitled Chopin: Interpreting his Notational Symbols sitting on a music stand in my studio. I have been reading and truly thinking about all that Maestro Bernstein has researched and suggests regarding the "hairpin" symbols in Romantic style period music (these hairpins look like small crescendo and diminuendo markings, used together or singularly). Please watch his video linked above for a full explanation of this.......if you own a copy of the Chopin Preludes, find the e minor and try out some of the ideas for performance for yourself; we will discuss when I see you next! Enjoy your own time at the piano for the next several weeks!
I have been watching videos of the 2022 Verbier Festival on medici.tv. This event takes place in the Swiss Alps, and I have seen some wonderful performances, including Yuja Wang (can her fingers REALLY move that fast through Ligeti's "Devil's Staircase" Etude and Kapustin's Concert Etude No. 3!!?!), Daniil Trifonov, and Kirill Gerstein playing the Liszt sonata in b Minor on........the Maene-Vinoly Concert grand piano with, yes, a CURVED keyboard!! I have been fascinated with this instrument after reading about it and I thought you might enjoy learning about this, too, so I link articles here and here. This instrument is straight-strung as opposed to being cross-strung as our current grands are; the sound is quite different. I can't share the Verbier festival videos with you, but here is a youtube video of Kirill Gerstein practicing a bit of the Liszt on the Maene-Vinoly. Listen and tell me what you think!!1
I watched an interesting lecture on youtube recently. Professor David Witten at Montclair University discussed Chopin's sketches regarding technique. The lecture is entitled "The Greatest Method Book Never Written: Chopin's Sketchbook for Pianists". I found many of his comments to be thought-provoking; Prof. Witten is also an engaging speaker! The video is a little under forty minutes, and I think you may enjoy as I did! Let me know your thoughts!
Some of you may tire hearing me say that the study of music is a lifelong endeavor, but truly, I learn of new composers, performers almost every day that I previously knew nothing about. For example, as much as I have admired the music of organists Marie-Clare Alain and Gillian Weir, I never knew about Jeanne Demessieux, born 100 years ago, who was an astonishing performer and virtuosic composer. I link a New York Times article here, with incredible performances of her music played by Paul Jacobs (who is from Washington, PA., went to Curtis, and is chair of the organ department at Juilliard). Please do watch the inserted youtube video of Paul performing Demessieux's "Octaves". I watched with dropped jaw!! Jeanne Demessieux was deemed " the greatest organist of all generations" by none other than her teacher Marcel Dupre. Maurice Durufle, as he was finishing his Requiem said that "next to Demessieux, the rest of us play the pedals like elephants". There is also a link in the article to a wonderful performance of Demessieux's Te Deum by Renee Anne Louprette. Sit back, turn up your speakers, and prepare to be wowed!!
WHAT is an "Etude"?? Harvard Dictionary of Music describes as "A composition designed to improve the technique of an instrumental performer by isolating specific difficulties and concentrating his or her efforts on their mastery. A single etude usually focuses on one technical problem; etudes are usually published in groups more or less systematically covering a range of such problems in a range of keys." This month we will focus on etudes. If asked to name one famous collection of etudes, many pianists would come up quite easily with those written by Czerny and Hanon, but immediately thereafter, one would probably say those by Chopin (I linked Pollini playing all twenty-four). There are, however, thousands of etude for piano, and every pianist should have a good number under their fingers! Those etudes by Claude Debussy are among the most glorious, in my opinion; listen here to a young Mitsuko Uchida practicing during an interview regarding her performance of the Debussy Etudes and see if you agree! To listen to the set in entirety, I link one of my fav pianists, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, performing the Debussy. Now, another set of etudes that I just adore are those incredibly difficult ones by Gyorgy Ligeti. Listen to No.13 dubbed "the Devil's Staircase", performed here by another favorite pianist of mine, Pierre-Laurent Aimard. There is also a good video by Aimard where he discusses this work in detail. Alright, enough! Now, let's get those fingers moving! What etude are YOU working on today?
One of my favorite quotes by Sergei Rachmaninov:
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
Hey, gardener/pianists, check out student Gwen's wonderful garden blogs! Visit Gwen's
website: GwenWisniewski.com.