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My regular use of YouTube is concentrated on the search of interesting and historical documents about pianists.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 [...]

Renowned pianist Krystian Zimerman gave a quite unsual performance on Sunday, April 26 in LA at Walt Disney Hall.
I got the news about this particular event through my daily digest on Artsjournal.com (highly recommended! Never miss this amazing information source about music and arts www.artsjournal.com).
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 [...]

Last week we had the opportunity to assist to a unique classical music project: the YouTube Symphony Orchestra performing at Carnegie Hall. The musicians came from several countries and have been selected through auditioning videos, which they self-posted on YouTube.
That was the first orchestra “made in the world-wide-web”.
Just check your camera, put it in your practice room, choose the best piece you can play and then just record your little audition to get your chance to be a member of a ”virtual orchestra”.
A good idea, a well-organized project, a particular live performance.
Any instrumentalist was no more required to travel personally to an audition, they could just do it from their home, from their practicing room.
Hm, quite interesting but, do you really like this?
It sounds like in doing so, “virtual voyeurs” are allowed to watch me while I am having my private practicing session at home.
Well, I think that a [...]

Did you ever ask yourself whether your piano practicing is in fact efficient? Or have you ever had the feeling that your exercises on the keyboard are just a boring routine you daily repeat while not knowing why you do it?
Remember first: Practicing means exploring every unknown detail of the score you are studying; it is like disclosing the secret of music and discovering the unlimited power of the composers´masterworks.
A good approach to your daily practice should include a Prelude and Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S.Bach. This repertoire represents the absolute fundamental work for a pianist.
Studying meticulously Preludes and mostly Fugues by Bach requires a high concentration, especially when pointing out the plurality of voices (polyphony) relating together through counterpoint. This is the basis of efficient practicing and, in the long term, the perfect construction of high professional piano playing.
After your first approach with Bach, choose a piece [...]

Continuing in featuring great pianists among the “Immortals” we want to pay homage to another excellent, unique and inimitable artistic personality: Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
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 [...]

As long as someone can play piano, he or she is not necessarily a pianist. The way to become a professional pianist is not a simple scheme or pattern which can be used and experienced equally by every person.
I am not speaking about simple piano playing, what I often prefer to define as a pushing down of keys, depressing pedals like the accelerator of your car with a typewriter technique. Not at all.
It is very important not to strive after a quite impersonal and unattractive style of playing.
How do you consider your being a pianist?
Did you set your own mission statement about your personal musical development? If not, believe me, you should.
Unless you want to play rather for yourself in your free time and not for public.
But remember: being a pianist is only the step before you become an artist…

Do you believe in coincidence? Or do you prefer to believe in a perfect master plan of the universe? Well, if you are reading this blog, it is probably not a coincidence. You just found this blog because you are making music. Maybe making music is the main component of your personal expression, maybe you are a music student, or music is your profession, either as a career or as a music teacher. Anyway, making music is the part of my life which drives me since my childhood.
Music is my life, this is the reason why I simply decided to be a pianist. But I don´t want to remain “just” a pianist.
Professional development as a pianist is as much essential as personal development in life. Remaining “just” a pianist would mean stopping at a certain stepping stone without considering a wider perspective of experience.
You should not find satisfaction as a [...]