Brendel is talking about his young pupil as an “extraordinary talent”. He will be his mentor as long as the young man will be able to express his artistic personality and his passion in piano playing.
A quite interesting TV-documentation, yet not extended enough to discover talent and capabilities of this young pianist, which I could nevertheless recognize. Kit Armstrong’s approach to music is unprejudiced, he is open-minded for new things, his analytic thinking and artistic creativity are can be found in his already clearly expressed compositions. Maybe a new “Glenn Gould”-similar personality is arising? Yes, but his mentor should not be Alfred Brendel.

Brendel’s teaching style reminds me of a typical Viennese piano lesson, hedging around interpretation of Schubert, encouraging to use more pedal for the upper voice without giving exact advice on pedalizing technique, glorification of the beautiful, rounded piano sound, as this topic would be the ultimate truth about piano playing. Why not explaining in details how a really beautiful and cultivated piano sound can be produced?

Dear Mr. Brendel, sound esthetic originates from a profound knowledge of polyphonic playing ( !!! ).
You are mentioning polyphony when teaching your pupil, but any of Your performed works in a polyphonic way is totally outside of my knowledge.
Why?

There is one question without answer:
What is “Viennese piano tradition”? What is “Viennese piano school”?

After 6 years I spent at the Wiener Musikhochschule for further musical education, at that time, I deeply regret about Viennese piano teachers as Paul Badura-Skoda, Hans Petermandl, and, last but not least, Alfred Brendel. They used a teaching method consisting in “cloning” their students.
Not even a single one has any idea about polyphony or polyphonic piano playing, let alone knowledge about the right piano technique. Last was always considered as a tabu, like topics about sex or money…
No dedication into depth, no exploring the truth in music, only a superficial imposing of a pseudo Viennese style has been done. In other words: didactic razzle-dazzle.

“Moaning” on the piano, this is the impression I immediately get when Viennese pianists play Schubert.
Or the typical textual fidelity on Beethoven-Sonatas: “Everything is written in the score, nothing more is required…”
Perhaps we will find out what real Viennese Piano tradition has once represented. But we should get back to Leschetitzky, Paderewski, Schnabel, Moiseiwitsch, Friedman…
And this is another story.

Brendel spricht über eine “ausserordentliche” Begabung des jungen Schülers, dem er als großer Mentor zur Seite stehen wird, bis er seine eigene Persönlichkeit als Künstler und seine Leidenschaft im Klavierspiel entfacht hat.
Die Dokumentation konnte natürlich nur ein begrenztes Spektrum des pianistischen Talents Kit Armstrongs zeigen.
Jedenfalls konnte ich tatsächlich seine Begabung und sein Potenzial erkennen.
Unbefangener Zugang zur Musik, Offenheit für Neues, analytisches Denken, künstlerische Kreativität, die sich schon in eigenen Kompositionen zu entfalten weiß.
Kit Armstrong steht somit einer erfolgreichen Musik-Karriere nichts mehr im Wege, eine neue “Glenn Gould”-ähnliche Persönlichkeit könnte in Zukunft entstehen.
WENN…sein Mentor nicht Alfred Brendel hieße.

Bei der Beobachtung des Unterrichtsstils Brendels fallen die typischen Merkmale der sogenannten Wiener Klavierschule eindeutig auf:
Herumreden um die Werkinterpretation bei Schubert, Ermutigung zu mehr Pedalisierung der Oberstimme ohne fundierte Hinweise, wie man pedalisiert, Verherrlichung des “runden” Klanges, als ob dies das einzig Wahre beim Klavierspiel wäre, jedoch ohne wirkliche Erklärung, woher ein schöner, kultivierter Klavierton kommt.
Lieber Herr Brendel, Klangästhetik entsteht aus einer profunden Kenntnis des polyphonen Spiels ( !!! ).
Sie erwähnen die Polyphonie beim Unterricht mit Ihrem Schüler, jedoch ist mir kein von Ihnen jemals gespieltes Werk auf polyphonischer Weise bekannt.
Warum nicht?

Eine Frage bleibt nun offen:
Was ist “Wiener Klaviertradition”? Was ist “Wiener Klavierschule”?
Nach 6 Jahren Klavierstudium an der damaligen Wiener Musikhochschule habe ich mit großem Bedauern feststellen müssen, dass Wiener Klavierlehrer, wie Paul Badura-Skoda, Hans Petermandl, und dazu zähle ich auch Alfred Brendel, eine sonderbare Art des “Klonens” mit dem Nachwuchs betrieben haben.
Kein Einziger hat hier die blasseste Ahnung von Polyphonie oder besser gesagt, von polyphonischem Spiel, geschweige denn von richtiger Klaviertechnik, welche wie ein Tabu-Thema behandelt wurde. Ähnlich der brisanten Tabuisierung von Sex und Geld…
Keine Einweihung in die Tiefe und in die Wahrheit der Musik sind aufzufinden, lediglich von einem oberflächlichen Aufoktroyieren eines Pseudo-Wiener Stils ist hier die Rede, kurz gefasst: didaktische Effekthascherei.
“Raunzen” am Flügel….so kommt es mir vor, wenn Wiener Pianisten Schubert spielen.
Oder die gepredigte Texttreue bei den Beethoven-Sonaten: “Das steht ja alles in den Noten und mehr darf es ja nicht sein”…
Wie wohl hätte dies Beethoven bezeichnet? “Ein Vortrag ohne Affekt und Leidenschaft ist verwerflich”…
Vielleicht kommen wir noch drauf, was die wirkliche Wiener Klaviertradition einmal gewesen ist. Allerdings müsste man dann zu Leschetitzky, Paderewski, Schnabel, Moiseiwitsch, Friedman zurückkehren…
Aber das ist eine andere Geschichte.

Hinweis:
Alfred Brendel – Kit Armstrong Die nächste Generation

Suggestions of different piano works for a practice session:

Begin:

• J.S.Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier Book II – Prelude and Fugue D Minor BWV 875

Connected work:

• L.v.Beethoven, Piano Sonata D Minor Op. 31 No. 2 – “The Tempest” / First movement

Related works:

• S.Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto D Minor No.3 Op.30, First movement
• Bach-Busoni, Chaconne / First part to the begin of the D major key section (quasi Tromboni)

You can take these practicing ideas to build a large repertoire. Try this every day, rotating with other pieces and being creative in the combination of them for your session. Be sure to remain highly concentrated during the whole practice, otherwise your work will be unproductive and unreliable.
If you have any questions, don´t wait and ask for help by simply posting a comment.

What characterized the particular style of playing and interpretation that made Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli so unforgettable?
He was obsessed with technical perfection and totally exact reproduction of the score.
His devotion to the music was incredibly deep, it is known that he spent hours and hours on his practicing sessions.
I had my first impression of Benedetti Michelangeli when I was a student at the music conservatory of my home town Cagliari. My father told me a lot about this pianist, trying to motivate me to practice more like he did.
I first listened to some of his recordings, I remember to be quite impressed about his Brahms-Paganini Variations and Bach-Busoni Chaconne. Later I literally admired his recording of Ravel Piano Concerto G Major and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto G Minor No.4 Op.40.

I thought first that his interpretations were too polite, or even unemotional, because of the exact technique and perfection. But I was able to discover soon his real signature: his beautiful and incomparable singing tone.
When playing a melodic phrase or a cantilena he let sing the piano, with his noble touch and his high-class art of making music.

Don´t forget that Benedetti Michelangeli had a deep knowledge of the instrument, he knew every detail about the piano action and he was rigorous in demanding a perfect calibration of the keyboard as well as accurate voicing. Those requirements about the piano are always necessary to grant a professional performance to a pianist, and that is what he also consequently did.

I wish I would have had the opportunity to hear him live, but it didn’t come to it, unfortunately. I can imagine how powerful and hypnotizing his performances have been for the audience. He was certainly an influential personality as a pianist and musician.
By all means his spirit of total sacrifice to the music was exemplary and his being a pianist was more than a profession, it was his life.

Thepianist.com starts with Glenn Gould, the eccentric Canadian pianist who certainly set a milestone in the history of the piano and pianists.

A large source of information has been written, spoken, broadcasted about Glenn Gould.
It will not be necessary to put more information about him, as it is already available. And everybody knows that there are controversial opinions about his interpretations.
Let us simply remember Glenn as someone who wanted to change the old patterns of classical music, to bring more life in the masterworks of great composers, to suggest new and original approaches to the score.

Glenn´s personal note was doubtless his conducting the music he was playing (when one of his hands was free, of course) and, last but not least, his permanent humming over the notes, the phrases or the bass-line, whatever he thought it was right to do.

Another personal note was also his polyphonic playing.
He perfectly understood how to study the score, how to read the voices in the context of the composition, how to analyze the structure and finally how to play like a string quartet or even an orchestra.

My personal recommendation to all pianists:
Don´t try to be a second Glenn Gould, the world has already one and he is enough. But you can take him as an example.
You can also decide to continue his purpose.
Be yourself, like Glenn was, and your style will develop in the right direction.
“Thank you Glenn, for showing us what to do, what not to do, how to do it, how not to do it.”