Zimerman apparently criticized some US policies overseas and took the opportunity of his performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall to announce this as his last American appearance. Understandable that he got annoyed also because of the troubles he often encountered due to traveling with his own Steinway piano.

But why taking political reasons regarding the country where I have been invited to perform, and use them to affect my performance and let the audience know, that I would never perform again in that country? First a pianist is performing for the people and not for politics, even though people involved into politics also attend classical concerts.

Just by taking notice of his concert program and the related article on the LA Times, another thing immediately attracted my attention:
Zimerman perfomed Bach´s C minor Partita No.2 BWV 826 as the opening piece. As reported on the LAT, he apparently made a comment before starting to play Bach, saying that it is important to consider the political purpose of a piece of music. If he referred this to a Bach Partita, he probably used the wrong piece for the right purpose.
If we talk about the “political purpose” of a piece of music, I think it is more appropriate to mention for example Beethoven, canceling his dedication to Napoleon for his third symphony “Eroica”, or Shostakovich, whose symphonies are a direct connection with the history of his country at his time.

But Bach Partitas? Political purposes? I don´t really see any.
Partitas have the title “Clavierübung” or “Clavichord Practice”, to be understood not as a simple practice for piano students, rather as a “musical” practice, a composition for the keyboard instrument. Bach mainly required a particular cultivated expression and touch when playing the Partitas, especially referring to the polyphonic manner of performance.

Let us assume for one moment, Bach used political purposes for those works, but this great composer wrote some kind of universal music that even “political disturbing contents” of his time did not affect or even influence the beauty, the clearness and timelessness of his works.

At the end, music has always the power to arise from other contents of life….

Read more about this on Los Angeles Times Arts.

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.”