THE PIANIST.COM - making pianists feel at home » master http://www.thepianist.com A journey in the world of pianists, musicians, composers who changed our lives and times - Written by Italian pianist Roberta Pili Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:07:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Alfred Brendel – Master of Cloning http://www.thepianist.com/2011/08/alfred-brendel-master-of-cloning/ http://www.thepianist.com/2011/08/alfred-brendel-master-of-cloning/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:51:24 +0000 Roberta Pili http://www.thepianist.com/?p=490 Continue reading →]]> Master and disciple meet together. Kit Armstrong is a Taiwanese-British young pianist. A couple of years ago he was invited to visit his mentor Alfred Brendel at his London domicile, to be introduced into the tradition of piano playing and interpretation of the masterworks of the Viennese Classicism.
The team work between Brendel and his pupil shows a totally common and non-exciting piano lesson, which is characterizing the daily routine of a pretty boring piano masterclass at the Music University in Vienna.
Both are working on a repertoire which is devotedly related to the Vienna piano tradition, that we finally should expect, of course, from a master of interpretation of the Viennese Classicism as Brendel is. Talks and questioning about Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, a little Liszt, some known works by Bach belong in conclusion to this ring of selected composers.

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.

]]> http://www.thepianist.com/2011/08/alfred-brendel-master-of-cloning/feed/ 1 When the pupil is ready for his master http://www.thepianist.com/2009/10/when-the-pupil-is-ready-for-his-master/ http://www.thepianist.com/2009/10/when-the-pupil-is-ready-for-his-master/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:47:52 +0000 Roberta Pili http://www.thepianist.com/?p=333 Continue reading →]]> 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…

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