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Inspired by the sound of the organ

Roberta Pili — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:01:30 +0000

Mozart called it the king of the instruments, Schumann recommended to learn to play it to achieve more understanding about the power of music, most of the great composers played and wrote works for it. What makes the organ being so extremely apart of all other musical instruments and containing at the same time the power of expression of all these together?
At this point we could not fail to mention the great master Johann Sebastian Bach, who plays the leading role in the music history as an organist of unlimited abilities and as a supreme composer of works for all styles and musical forms. Bach set the fundament of harmonic, chromatic and highly developed contrapuntal structure in all kind of composition. Bach’s prolific attitude toward a great artistic expression led him to improve existing musical forms, creating an innovative way of composing through unfatiguing exploration of original patterns and models. His virtuosity as an organist and improviser definitely influenced his composing style.

The magnificent sound of the organ offers a great variety of harmonic structures, particularly when the use of the pipes through wind reproduces different timbres and volume. Another characteristic of the organ is given by the manuals and the pedalboard. The player is using them separated or in combination with each other, depending on the requirements of the music score.
But the inherent polyphony, which is produced by the pipes sounding simultaneously, can be considered as the real nature of the organ.
The richness of that polyphonic timbre should be the source of inspiration for the study at the piano. We cannot forget that the piano has a close relationship to the organ, even though reduced to one keyboard and three pedals which are only working in direct connection with the sound. But the harmonic structure and the tone extension of our instrument allow us to be able to imitate the organ sound, not only by taking care of a specific touch technique as tenuto and legato but also developing a polyphonic playing.

Play Bach, listen to the organ, and your piano playing will be improving to a higher level…

When the piano “is playing” the pianist

Roberta Pili — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:40:25 +0000

Be aware of getting a good piano for your practicing or performances. Otherwise you will be not playing the piano but the piano will be playing you! One of the essential requirements pianists should take care for is their instrument, both for practicing and performing. The well-regulated action of the piano is as important as a perfectly tuned car for a driver of Formula 1. Pianists happen to be often facing some problems with the instrument, particularly regarding the action, which can reveal unevennesses in the technical adjustment of the keyboard in relation to the other workpieces.
It is essential to recognize that the piano action is like the anatomy of the instrument, as arm, wrist, hand and fingers are the anatomy of a pianist. Both mechanisms are based on the leverage principle. Knowing how the action works on this system means understanding our own anatomy by playing.
A well-regulated action has to be sensitive and responsive in order to fit the variety of touch and technical abilities of the player. A professional piano technician usually works in direct relationship and communication with the pianist, in doing so he can operate on the action as far as the pianist is demanding this kind of technical support to meet his own needs. The further positive aspect of this work leads in a balanced tone production. The pianist can then build up his work on a perfect instrument, which is the starting point for a performance on a high artistic level.

Sometimes, having a high-developed piano technique can depend on a perfect piano action. And a perfect piano action depends on a very good technician. If we can find a good technician, we can develod our technique…

Being a competitive pianist

Roberta Pili — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:34:25 +0000

Competitions, competitions, competitions.
Almost every piano student has tried to participate at least in one piano competition during his music education.
A motivating piano teacher is mostly the first impulse to prepare a specific program of different piano works to perform in front of a jury. The more “pressure” the student is receiving from his teacher, the more he will get his adrenalin pumping for the competition. In other words preparing the program for a high-level performance will create the strong feeling of being compared with other competitors’ playing.
Setting those goals as “I want to be the best pianist” truly chracterizes the striving for a perfect performance to show the achieved abilities on the piano. It happens very often in piano competitions that not the best prepared pianist is the winner, but the one who wants to be the winner. The pianist who is able to reflect his strong winning desire through his most expressive playing and interpretation of the selected works will be probably be awarded first prize by the jury.

Do piano competitors want to simply impress the jury, or are they seeking for attention in order to get upcoming engagements through artist’s management, or do they even want to verify their level of stage-fright while performing before an audience?
Each of them will certainly have different personal purposes to decide to go to a competition.

This kind of competitive thinking can be also turned as profitable for the further development as a musician. In fact we can create our own competition in mind to spread the wings of a unique maturing process.
A concert career inevitably involves the performing pianist into a competition with other concert pianists. So we never stop to be compared with our colleagues. But who is the jury in this case? The audience, of course, and maybe the critics as well.

Finally, the true path of this challenge for pianists seems to be only one: being competitive with themselves, working every day to play better and better, searching and researching for new inspiration, improving the communication with the composer, producing an individual standard of excellence.
Pianists! Never be happy of your achievements today, but set them as the essential step to build up your mastery for tomorrow.

2008 A. Rubinstein Competition – Final Round –
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Uri Segal at Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Israel –
Roman Rabinovich, pianist

When the pupil is ready for his master

Roberta Pili — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:47:52 +0000

It has been said that the best teacher always recognizes when his pupil is ready to learn something new.
In other words a really good teacher can be as good as his pupil is able to understand and to apply new knowledge upon particular topics related to the learning process.
As usual students are tending to model his master, whithout thinking about the quintessential purpose of those teaching methods.
But how long does it take to step further from the level of simple modeling to the consciousness of active learning and finally reaching at least the same level of the master? When are students ready to develop theirselves and become masters of their own, last but not least to even try to pursue the path which the master has shown?

Individuality, a strong personality, the power of determination are actually the main requisites to reach mastership.
Doubtless we are speaking here about a work-in-progress, during the entire life.
Being a pianist for a choice of profession is a lifelong task, to which we are personally committed to achieve the peak of mastership in being a musician.
Who is the best master that we can find in order to reach this level?
Practicing is the best master to us, and we are never-ending students…

Faithful pianists don’t cheat Beethoven!

Roberta Pili — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:10:51 +0000

Textual fidelity, accurate reading of the score, focussed analyzing of the notes, meticulous reproduction of the dynamic indications, objective reconstruction of the composition, parsimonious use of the pedal, keen performance…we can go on. This could be the description of the way of interpretation offered by most pianists today in matter of Beethoven piano sonatas.

“Beethoven wrote everything in the score!” – some insiders would certainly affirm that. And it is true.
But most pianists seem to forget, or at least, to let expression completely aside when playing Beethoven.
The musical power of communicating was the real language that Beethoven consequently used to express all thinkable human emotions. From anger to serenity, from sadness to happiness, from pain to freedom, from resignation to joy. Each Beethoven sonata is a reflection of his spirit at that particular time of the Opus number and year thereof. When a pianist is playing his sonatas, then he is reading his musical diary. When a pianist has understood those works, then he is experiencing Beethoven.

Meeting Beethoven means facing his spirit. This can be possible only when letting go the inspiration through the expression of his works. Interpretation is not just textual fidelity to the score, it is far more than that. It is discovering the truth between the notes, understanding the meaning of an abstract language like black lines and signs and points on the paper, it is finally enhancing the human power of expression to reach the spiritual need of the soul.
That´s Beethoven, force of spirit.

Unfortunately, most pianists are not aware of this, they prefer to stay attached to the music text, thinking this is interpretation.

A look inside this topic in the upcoming essay on Artist’s thoughts.

“Pardon me for sitting down while I play…”

Roberta Pili — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:24:54 +0000

This week our cover story is dedicated to a wonderful pianist, who actually was more a fantastic entertainer: Danish pianist, conductor and comedian Victor Borge.
His funny point about famous piano pieces and telling several music jokes have been characterizing his performances.
It is interesting to notice that Victor Borge enjoyed the best music education when he was a child, his teachers were Liszt´s student Frederic Lamond and Busoni´s pupil Egon Petri.
But he discovered quite early that he didn´t really like the serious concert business, so he rather took the more funny path of a music career.
As he said, “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people”.
If you look at his videos, you will certainly not be able to contain your laughter…Victor Borge was right!
In music it´s often about fun…

2010 – Schumann meets Chopin

Roberta Pili — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:50:53 +0000

Next year 2010 two great romantic composers share the celebration of their year of birth, obviously 200 years later.
Robert Alexander Schumann ( June 8th, 1810 ) and Frédéric François Chopin ( March 1st, 1810 ) marked the Romanticism in its musical and mostly piano tradition for a couple of decades in the middle of the 19th century.
Both defined a very personal style of musical expression.

Schumann’s art of composing was focused on the strong character of German cultural influence “Sturm und Drang”, perpetuating Beethoven’s message of a universal impact of music. Due to his early education, Schumann further developed a more personal style between literary ideas and musical representation. This can be heard in his pieces Papillons Op.2 and mostly in the Carnaval Op.9.
Pianists have generally a problem by interpreting Schumann, especially when they have to follow the indications of Tempi in his piano works. Schumann also characterized his state of mind by regularly changing the speed related to the different thematic expositions. In fact this was the way how the composer perfectly reflected his tormented soul. The pianist should be able to immerge in Schumann’s divided psyche, otherwise the execution of his works will remain nothing but a distorted interpretation which is dispraising the author’s intention.

Chopin was the eternal romantic poet of the black and white keys.
His entire inner being was dedicated to his instrument, the piano. His style is particularly known for the rubato (Italian stolen time ), a special feeling by playing musical phrases in the balance between speeding up and slowing down the tempo.
Chopin’s nature was introverted. Like Schumann he also perfectly reflected this character into his music, creating a very personal and unique art of musical painting.
Chopin was definitely inspired by Bach and Mozart. Bach delivered him the understanding of polyphony and motivic thorough-composition, instead Mozart offered him the simplicity and clarity of a melodic line. Nevertheless Chopin was able to be idiosyncratic enough to personalize his compositions.

Many pianists will get their hands full next year with these two masters.
A question still remains: who will be finally able to pay the most respectful interpretative tribute to Schumann and Chopin?
We will listen full of expectation…

Adiós Alicia

Roberta Pili — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:01:33 +0000

One of the last great personalities of the piano history left us: Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha.
I remember very well that I had the pleasure to attend one of her recitals in Vienna about 20 years ago. A little woman came on stage, but a big sound came out of the piano.
She had an incredible charisma and a powerful way of communicating with the audience. Her gesture at the instrument was not that kind of visual flashy demonstration of flying hands over the keyboard, rather a perfect choreography of well-thought movements.
Her playing reminds us of the great old piano tradition, as pianists like Josef Hofmann, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Shura Cherkassky, Vladimir Horowitz, Rosalyn Tureck belong to it.
This tradition was characterized by a charming piano sound, full of color and vibrating nuances, letting sing the instrument as the human voice, expressing all emotions of the music and perfectly translating the composer’s message.
The Grande Dame of the piano, Alicia de Larrocha died on September 25, 2009.
It seems to be a strange but curious coincidence, that she passed away on the same day Glenn Gould would be celebrating his birthday if he still lived…maybe she has been invited to celebrate with him and his / her old piano friends on another world…

The old piano tradition has now definately reached an end. Unfortunately.
Who knows, a new Renaissance will come?

Happy Birthday Glenn!

Roberta Pili — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:14:01 +0000

He was born on September 25, 1932.
If he still lived, he would celebrate today his 77th birthday.
Glenn Gould, a unique musical personality of the 20th century, one of the greatest pianists and a controversial figure, yet a remarkable thinker and philosopher regarding musical points of view and composing.
Doubtless this genius is still among us, we can feel his presence, especially when we listen to his unforgettable recordings…
Happy birthday Glenn!

One of Gould´s funniest moments of his creative streak – Scottish Rhapsody

A Remarkable Personality

Roberta Pili — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:37:43 +0000

Nowadays everybody knows YouTube as an enormous source of information. No matter what kind of video or just audio related documentation we need, everything can be found there….almost everything.
My regular use of YouTube is concentrated on the search of interesting and historical documents about pianists. A couple of days ago I found something really astonishing. Looking for a comparison between different interpretations of Prokofiev´s Seventh Piano Sonata Op. 83, I have been guided by some comments posted on videos of this piano work. So I discovered a completely unknown pianist, the Russian Vladimir Bakk.
His Prokofiev interpretation really captured my attention to further listening to other recordings.
One of the best examples of Bakk´s artistic expression doubtless comes through the Rachmaninoff´s Second Piano Sonata Op.36. His technical skills are full of transparency, absolutely serving the musical path of the work. His singing tone shows a deep understanding of the melodic line of the score, never played for itself, but always in the logical motivic thorough-composition.
He never neglects to open his soul to the highest purpose of making music with the heart.
Liszt´s Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody No.6 is another extraordinary performance of this great artist.
Never rushing with octaves, keeping a balanced harmony between a vibrant rhythm and a strong musical character of the piece, Bakk creates a fantastic painting, using different colors of sound and putting his entire charm into it.

Unfortunately, Vladimir Bakk is no more with us. He died 2007 at age 63. Quite sad that he didn´t get the proper recognition during his life. The few videos of his performances on YouTube pay tribute to this pianistic genius.
Vladimir Bakk should become an inspiration to all those pianists who want to reach everybody´s heart and soul through the music…