Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for Themselves by Elyse Mach

Author:Elyse Mach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 1980-04-04T05:00:00+00:00

Jorge Bolet playing the Beethoven Choral Fantasy at the United Nations Annual Concert on U.N. Day with the Vienna Symphony, Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting

My teacher, David Saperton, always used to say that you should just take your normal position at the keyboard, drop your hands to your lap, relaxed, and then bring them up and put them on the keyboard. “That,” he said, “is your normal position.” And I believe the body should be kept relatively still, too. The more you move around, the more you’re asking for trouble. When you shift your body this way and that at the keyboard, you alter your position there. Such alteration increases the possibility and even the probability that you’re going to be missing all kinds of notes and playing all kinds of stresses that you don’t really want or that aren’t in the music. What really gets to me is the pianist who occasionally lifts his head and looks to heaven. What are they looking for, God?

Again I return to the master. You never had a chance to see Rachmaninoff, but he was absolutely immovable at the keyboard; he just never, never moved his torso, except of course when he had to slide right or left to reach the higher or lower keys on the piano. But he never bounced, he never twisted.

I remember one of the first competitions I judged, I believe it was the first Van Clibum Competition. A young lady was one of the con-testants I had to judge, and as soon as she began to play, all of us exclaimed that she must have studied with Glenn Gould. That sort of technique is most difficult to watch. While the music may be quite good, the movement takes away from the performance and leaves the audience almost seasick. I think Saperton’s advice was the best. Just relax and sit still.

Anyway, that’s the way I do it. And as I’ve repeated so often, music, or making music, is an individual thing. I’m me.

His “way” seems to stand him in good stead, because he admits to no stage fright before or during a concert. He further admits that he doesn’t even get nervous, but does undergo a certain feeling of uncertainty that is rapidly overcome when he enters the stage and begins playing. However, he also comments that what he does isn’t necessarily for everyone, and so he steers clear of giving too much advice.

At least four or five times a month I receive a letter in which someone “wants a career in music, and wants to come to play for me.” I simply call them up and tell them that the time factor prevents our getting together. Right now I have a letter in Philadelphia from a young lady who is entering the Van Clibum Competition shortly and wants some coaching. Of course, I could simply rely on the “time element” excuse and get out of the whole thing, but I’d rather give the young woman a valid reason for not helping her: that most of what I’d have to tell her would confuse her more than it would help her.

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