The Piano Sage

Piano Battle! Forget your sheet music, start Improvising!

2012-02-29T12:32:00.001Z

Don't do improvising? Well, all the classical composers did, it was an essential skillset. Just think of any Theme and Variations - these are basically improvisations on a theme; Cadenzas in Mozart or Beethoven's piano concertos - these were essentially improvisations that in many cases we have some notated down. There were even piano duels, improvisation battles, like one between Beethoven and Steilbelt. Victory in a piano duel cemented one's reputation as a supreme virtuoso.

Improvisatory piano duels were notorious among composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, & Liszt

Yesterday, I attended the EPTA Improvisation workshop at London's Chappell's music store run by Lucinda Mackworth-Young. Lucinda, heads the UK's Practical Piano Teachers' Course. The workshop left me inspired. Firstly, Lucinda illustrated the point well of why improvisation is so important: if you're at a friend's place, you're a classical trained musician and may give the excuse, I can't play on the spot, I am not prepared, I don't have my music! What would you have to show for all your years of training and lessons!?

It's actually very easy to start improvising, and with a few guidelines, you and your student or friend can start right away. So in this workshop, we looked at the various scales you can improvise on, there are just so many, but here are just a few examples:

Pentatonic major scale on the black notes with left hand accompaniment on F# and C# (or both simultaneously)
Eb minor Pentatonic scale on black notes
Phrygian mode - has it's roots in ancient greece but is also used widely in Spanish music - the scale comprises of the notes E to E So we practiced a Habanera accompaniment with the left hand E (dotted rhythm; rise to) B (rise to) G (down to) B

In all the above examples, one or more persons can participate, one can take the accompaniment while the other improvises a melody.

Lucinda covered three approaches to improvisation which were fascinating. I summarise them below:

Keep the improvisation like a musical conversation: question and answer, finish the improvisation like you'd end a conversation or a piece.
Using the scale of your choice, use the rhythm of a familiar song to you - this could be anything from a pop tune to a nursery rhyme as the rhythmic formula for your improvisation (so this means, if you chose London Bridge is Falling Down, you'd use that rhythm, but the notes can be anything you want!)
The last approach, I'd call a Sound Painting - what you do is look at a photo or painting, and pick out an element (it could be the clouds, the sunshine, a dog) to use the piano to describe it. Put these elments together and you have a musical tale to tell!

Für Elise; no, Für Therese more likely!

2012-01-23T05:00:00.000Z

Those who you have seen the comedy film Wayne's World where in a guitar shop, Stairway To Heaven is banned, may have a similar love hate relationship with Fur Elise. Perhaps the most popular, some may say overplayed piece of the piano repertoire. But perhaps, if you knew the story behind the piece, you would think differently, and perceive it more favorably. "Für Elise“ WoO 59; is its identification in the Beethoven ouevre assigned in 1955, WoO in german translates to "without opus number" so it's a way of cataloging Beethoven's piano works that weren't officially published during his lifetime.

In 2010, PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) in the United States aired

Therese Malfati (Beethoven dedicated Fur Elise)

Keyboard conversations with Jeffrey Siegel which gave a charming background to the infamous 'Fur Elise' piece.

Jeffrey Siegel, a Steinway artist and concert pianist presents this enlightening documentary. Fur Elise, I'm sure, every piano student knows it as well as their parents remarks Siegel. Is it a teaching piece for his students? No it isn't, as the piece was originally written in April 1810, as a private 'love poem,' not meant for publication. According to Siegel, 1827; 40 years later, in 1867, the manuscript of "Fur Elise" was found amongst the private papers of Therese Malfati (1792-1851) (whom Beehoven was romantically involved with).

In fact, some scholars believe Beethoven even proposed marriage to her (who married an aristocratic landowner). When the piece was eventually published, the editor misreads Beethoven's writing and dedication and instead of the name Therese, titles the piece Fur Elise (For Elise).

Further reading
ForElise Website (an entire website dedicated to Für Elise no less!)

Sir Anthony Hopkins: Actor, Composer, and Pianist

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000Z

Srce (Classic FM)

The first link I had of Sir Anthony Hopkins and piano music was when I was watching his character Hannibal Lechter in the film Silence of the Lambs listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations, whilst later performing a gruesome act of violence. Little did I know until recently that the actor himself, is an accomplished composer, and pianist enthusiast. In, fact his love of music came before he discovered acting, at the age of 6, when he started piano lessons in Margam, Wales. According to ClassicFM, his mother had high hopes that little Anthony would be a famous pianist.

To this day, in his spare time, Hopkins enjoys reading, painting and continues playing piano (every day, in fact, if at home). His piano of choice is his very own Viennese Bosdendorfer (brand owned by Yamaha) grand piano. And the repertoire of choice? Hopkins enjoys playing works by Bach, Scriabin and Chopin, "... not to impress anyone but to keep the co-ordination of my hands and my brain as I get older,'' he told the New south Wales newspaper.

Hopkins, wanted to be a musician but didn't have the qualifications so he became an actor, instead, according to his interview with the Independent newspaper. In January, 2013, 74 year old Sir Anthony releases his compositions of orchestral works through the UK's Classic FM (world's biggest classical radio station) record label. So it's time for you to listen to some of Sir Anthony Hopkin's compositions, recorded by the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which include 2 of his Film compositions for the films August and Slipstream. Comment below and let us know what you think!

Further reading

Hopkins swaps movies for music with piano tour [2007, Independent, UK]
Anthony Hopkins - Hannibal hits the high notes with a classic performance (Independent, UK)
Interview: Sir Anthony Hopkins, actor and musician (Scostman, UK)
Sir Anthony Hopkins 'Composer': Actor Debuts First Album - 5 Actors Who've Turned To Music [Huffington Post UK]
Anthony Hopkins, Film Composer, IFC Fix
Anthony Hopkins interview on CBS Eye To Eye With Katie Couric; on composing for the film Slipstream

Thalberg, 3 hand piano playing - Fantasia on Rossini's Moses

2012-01-08T05:00:00.000Z

Thalberg 200th anniversary
Mention the name Thalberg, to just about anyone, and they'll probably say ThalWho? 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of Austrian composer and pianist Sigismond Thalberg's birth - January 8, 1812. Thalberg was a contemporary of Franz Liszt and even had a legendary piano duel with him. His playing was divisive, his technique and playing was admired by Mendelssohn but not so much by Schumann nor Chopin. Schumann even used the term 'a la Thalberg' do denote compositions with little musical depth. Storycompositions note the differences in taste perhaps between Thalberg and Chopin in this annecdote:

Chopin gave a recital of his own compositions in Paris, which Dreyshock attended in company with Thalberg. They listened with delight throughout the performance, but after the performance Thalberg began shouting at the top of his voice.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Dreyshock, in astonishment.
‘Oh,’ explained Thalberg, ‘I’ve been listening to piano all the evening, and now, for the sake of contrast, I want a little forte.’(William Mason, Memories of a Musical Life, 1901)

Thalberg's Legacy - Operatic Transcriptions
Thalberg's piano compositions were played by American piano students in the 1840s. Thalberg's compositions, mainly in the form of operatic transcriptions survive today.

Chopin (middle) + pianists (Paris circle) J. Rosenhain, T. v. Döhler, A. Dreyschock, Sigismond Thalberg, Pierre E. Wolff, Adolf v Henselt and F. Liszt. src [Chopin Museum]

In 2011, the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt's birth, in addition to a Liszt recital, Liszt expert Dr. Kenneth Hamilton, author of After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance performed a recital in London's King's Place with the theme" How Sigismond Thalberg invented cocktail music: A Fantasy on Rossini’s Moses." [sheet music - IMSLP]. So let's here some of this light cocktail music, improvised and embellished 'hit tunes' of the romantic era.

Thalberg's Fantasia on Rossini's Moses [Audio Only with Score]

Sigimond Thalberg, 3 handed piano player!
I'm sure many of you are familiar with Schubert's Impromptu in Gb, where the right hand produces an appegiated accompaniment to a melody with the pinky of the same hand, which sounds like two hands playing. Thalberg, I dare say, goes a step further, and plays appegios with both hands and melodies with both thumbs, therein creating an effect of three hands. You can hear this effect in the climax of Thalberg's Fantasia on Rossini's Moses. Just listen from time index 2:20 in part 2, and you can see on the score this fantastic technical and musical feat! Surrounding the theme with elaborate scales and appegios was a 'trick' Thalberg got from Parish Alvars, a famous harpist at the time, writes Moriz Rosenthal, In Words and Music.

Thalberg's Fantasia on Rossini's Moses Part 2 [Audio Only with Score]

Duel Pianists – Liszt and Thalberg (Notes from a Pianist Blog)
Thalberg, Making the Music Sensitive

Happy 70th Birthday Maurizio Pollini, Chopin Pianist Extraordinaire

2012-01-05T05:00:00.000Z

Last year the piano sage blog featured an article: Chopin Piano Competition Winners - Maurizio Pollini Interview. 2012 is the year two legendary pianists Barenboim and Pollini (born 5th January 1942) celebrate their 70th birthday.

Maurizio Pollini Cartoon [srce:toonpool]

In 1960, the Chair of the International Chopin Competition, legendary Artur Rubinstein said of Pollini, "that boy plays better than any of us Jurors". Pollini was the youngest at the time, age 18 to win the competition.
It was no mean feat too, Pollini beat piano greats Vladimir Ashkenazy and Mituko Uchida to secondary prizes, which is why The Guardian UK newspaper stated 'Pollini has few pianistic peers in the world today.'

Let's relive the competition by viewing some rare footage of Pollini at the International Chopin Piano Competition Performing Chopin Prelude d minor op.28 no 24

What's Pollini achieved since winning the Chopin Piano Competition in 1960? Wikipedia highlights some of his accolades and triumphs since:

His first recordings for Deutsche Grammophon in 1971 included Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka and Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata and is still considered a landmark of twentieth century piano discography. Since then he has been one of Deutsche Grammophon's leading pianists. His recording of Chopin's Etudes, Opp. 10 & 25, also under Deutsche Grammophon, won Pollini international acclaim.

So it's great Pollini wasn't typecast into only performing works by Chopin, let's now hear
Pollini perform Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto (2nd Movement) with Conductor Abbado in Rome, 1967.

Pollini is also an exponent of modern composer Schönberg, especially his Opus 11 and Opus 19 works, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph he says:

"they are among the works of genius composed in the first half of the 20th century. I like them enormously. I have always liked them. They have remained permanently in my repertoire, and I would like people to appreciate them."

Pollini Performs Schönberg Op.19, 6 piano pieces

2012 Piano Anniversaries: Debussy, Thalberg, Ravel, Gershwin, Cage, Pollini, Barenboim

2011-12-29T10:31:00.000Z

Thalberg (Liszt's rival) [image: wikipedia]

It's a new year and with it, a whole range of anniversaries. In 2010 we had the 200th anniversaries of the birth of Chopin and Schumann, 2011 of Franz Liszt, and now for 2012 we mark the

50th anniversary of the death of English composer John Nicholson Ireland (13 August 1879 – 12 June 1962)
75th anniversaries of the deaths of composers George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) and Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937)
100th Anniversary of the birth of American John Cage (b. 5th September 1912 – d. 12th August 1992)
150th Anniversary of French composer Claude Debussy's birth (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)
200th anniversary of the birth of 19th Century virtuoso pianist/composer Sigismond Thalberg, (January 8, 1812 – April 27, 1871) once serious rival to Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886).

Happy 70th Birthday to great Concert Pianists:

Maurizio Pollini born 5th January 1942.
Daniel Barenboim, born 15th November 1942.

John Cage - Suite for Toy Piano performed by Steve Butters

So look out for special recitals and commemorations coming out near you in 2012.
If you want to list one below as a comment, feel free!

7 year old child prodigy passes Grade 8 Piano and Violin - Edward Tomanek - youngest to reach g8?

2011-12-19T08:19:00.006Z

Grade 8 is the gold standard that most young musicians aspire to reach. Grade 8 piano pieces are the level which would include single movements from selective Beethoven Piano Sonatas (Pathetique, Moonlight).

My daughter just passed grade 2 piano with merit age 5 (nearly 6) and that was quite a feat, and we are inspired by my cousin's son, grade 8 piano in Hong Kong, age 9. So who is the youngest to reach grade 8 piano?

In nov 2010, the Daily Mail (UK) newspaper reported that Edward Tomanek, passed Grade 8 piano and violin at age 7. Which is an astounding young age to pass the vigorous exams given by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. His parents aren't musicians and he was never pushed into music, however, Edward started playing the piano and lessons on the violin at age 3. He enjoys music and practicing, he can go at it for up to 3 hours at a time. Previously, Edward had attained distinction for Grade 5 piano, and also for Violin Grade 8 (his main instrument) shortly before he turned 7. Edward reached grade 8 piano also at age 7, though not distinction marking, as this would have been mentioned in the articles, a feat nonetheless! His prodigious talents earned Edward a place in the prestigious Royal College of Music junior school (a saturday school for the most talented young musicians in the UK).

Edward loves music, as he "paints pictures" with sound colour, and is fond of Chopin's emotional music. So let's see Edward play the piano. The Lark by Glinka-Balakirev performed by 8yr old Edward Tomanek (video), St Georges, Hanover Square, London 2010

8 yr old Edward Tomanek performing the Prokofiev Harp Prelude in C major Op 12 No 7 at St George's, London, 2010 (below)

Edward playing the violin (far right) performing the Vivaldi Concerto for 2 Violins in a minor, New Virtuosi Master Course, Queenswood School, UK April 2011

Well done Edward and best of luck for your musical career!

Further Reading

'Mini-Mozart' who has passed highest exam in violin and piano becomes Britain's youngest composer...at SEVEN
Edward Tomanek (Future Talent)
Video: Shining talent hits the top - at 7 years old [Cambridge News] Edward performs a Chopin Etude F minor (posthumous) 11/2010
Music exams- what do you think? (Music Teachers Blog) Illustrates the differences in requirements between Grade 1 and Grade 8 piano.

How to play Bach's Goldberg Variations BWV 988 analysis and tips by Danielle Osman

2011-12-12T05:00:00.007Z

Guest blogger Danielle Osman, once member of the Boston Repertory Orchestra and Harvard Musical Association Orchestra of Boston discusses Bach's Goldberg Variations, the technical and musical challenges involved and how she overcame them.

Danielle, please tell us about the origin of the Goldberg Variations.
The “Goldberg” Variations were first published in 1742 as a keyboard practice consisting of an Aria and 30 variations by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was Bach’s student who lived with the Count Kaiserling, who was the Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony. The Count was constantly ill suffering from insomnia and often called upon Goldberg to come and play for him “his” variations. Thus they came to be known as the Goldberg Variations. They start out with an Aria which is a Sarabande, and then go on to 30 variations with a similar bass line which go from being lively and crisp, to slow and sometimes very soft, sleepy pieces. Bach originally wrote them simply for the enjoyment of clavier players.

What attracted you to the Goldberg Variations?
Definitely the Aria. It’s a beautiful, sweet, dance of sorts. Its been referred to as a sarabande in the Anna Magdalena notebook (1725). The ornaments are exquisite. It’s filled with trills and turns which give it its body. It’s a loving piece and typical of Bach. It’s filled with real emotion and delicacy. Had I never heard this piece in the past, I would have instantly known that it was a Bach piece. In the middle of the Aria on the 25th bar, it gets very sad and touching. You could almost feel Bach’s heart. He was a greatly religious man and you can tell that this is a man who worships and loves his God. It gets almost religious at this point. Bach has that unique ability to make any work of his a form of worship, and being a spiritual person myself I was instantly drawn to this body of work and I decide to delve into the variations to see where he was going with it.

What do you think Bach's message is in this piece, what is he trying to convey?
Well, Bach initially wanted it to simply be a piano or harpsichord player’s enjoyment of music. He didn’t compose it as an exercise or study like the Well Tempered Clavier Books I & II. He just wanted it to be simple, fun, variations most of them being in G major but with quite ambitious trills here and there to give it that colorful effect and excitement. Half of the variations are lively and exciting and the other half are slow and sometimes dark.

Who are your favorite interpreters of Bach's Goldberg Variations and why? Who are of particular inspirations to you?
The obvious answer would be Glenn Gould because of his famous 1955 recording which catapulted him into an international superstar. Glenn Gould, to me, did the Goldberg Variations justice. His execution of the music was just what Bach had intended out of it. The fast lively variations, especially the 1st variation, were seamless. He never misses a beat and all the trills are very crisp. Those recordings were my inspiration and guide to play the Goldberg variations the way they are meant to be played. He was simply a genius. The ability to execute and articulate beautifully those ornaments at fast speed is almost unheard of, and no pianist that I know of has been able to do so at such a high tempo. Therefore Glenn Gould by all accounts did the best interpretation of Bach’s work. I liked the 1955 recording that Glenn Gould did at the tender age of 23, as opposed to the 1981 recording when he was almost 50 and close to his ultimate death.

I feel that with a faster tempo and with the playing style of Glenn Gould at that age, he got it right. Many pianists have played it over the years a lot slower and so did Glenn Gould when he was 50, and I feel that there is so much lacking. The beauty and dramatics of the pieces disappear once you slow down the tempo as much as they did. The power of the Goldberg variations are only felt when they are played fast, unless stated otherwise, and the ornaments are played and annunciated as Bach intended them to be.

What technical and musical challenges does the theme and variations present and how do you overcome them?

Challenges of the Goldberg Variations
There is some hand-crossing involved and the ornaments are not kind. It’s a great exercise for the fingers and you would need to start out very slowly. Some publishers issue out the works along with ornament executions and that’s a great help. Therefore, the main challenge in this work are the ornamentation. There are so many of them and executing them is where the fun is and where the challenges lay. There are so many trills which I love to play. Any music with trills is always fun but it is also very easy to get those trills wrong. So, careful execution is key. Take your time. Tear the music apart. Mark up your manuscripts, and get the fingering correct such that the movement is flawless and every note can be heard. Annunciation, articulation, and accents here and there is what makes this body of work exquisite.

Tip: Articulation
First off, articulating every note is of utmost importance. Some publishers of the Goldberg variations do have the original script along with the execution of the ornaments above it. That would allow the pianist to play the notes slowly and get every note on time with the base line. Typically, playing out the whole melody in sections until you are comfortable with that theme or variation helps the process.

Tip: Use minimal pedal
One needs to remember that this work is all baroque, so highly minimize the pedal. Do more legatos and staccatos, as opposed to using the pedal. I would recommend eliminating the pedal completely and that would help in the playing technique. Let the notes speak. It is important to allow the notes to sound off individually.

Tip: dynamics
Unfortunately Bach doesn’t really use the words pianissimo, fortissimo, mezzo piano, in this body of work, so the pianist is really left to execute as best as they can. It’s a very colorful body of work and every individual can interpret it in the best way they can. Albeit, there are some variations that seem to go against the grain of Baroque music. Variation No. 25 in particular sounds very much like a Chopin Nocturne, and is therefore played very softly, dolce, and perhaps a pedal could be introduced here.

Tip: Always break them into sections. Get comfortable with one section at a time, and then add it to another. This work can seem overwhelming but you need to break them apart and study, and understand, and feel the music.

Tip: Practice hands separately whilst taping the rhythm

Start out with the melody hand and play all the notes very slowly until you have that section done right. And then do the other hand, and once you are comfortable with the melody throw it together. But practice over and over one hand at a time until you get a sense for the chord progressions, the melody, and the general theme. Use the other hand to tap the beat. Tapping is a great tool and helps with timing.

Additional Article Links

Classical Notes - Goldberg Variations

About Danielle Osman:
Danielle has been a classical pianist for 20+ years. She has performed at a few venues in the US, Australia, and the UK. She has extensively researched composers and their works. She is primarily passionate about baroque and romantic era composers. She briefly was part of the Boston Repertory Orchestra and Harvard Musical Association Orchestra of Boston but realized that her true passion was in studying the works of her favorite composers and working on solo piano pieces which she continues to do today in her spare time. She is very happy to consult and work with other musicians and is open to ideas about anything music related. Her dream would be to work on some of Mozart’s Piano Concertos (No.21 first movement – Allegro Maestoso, in particular). Contact Danielle Osman..

Pianist Sam Liu on Chopin Mazurka in A minor op.17 no.4

2011-12-05T06:00:00.085Z

A Piano Sage blog exclusive, we interview up and coming Canadian-Taiwanese pianist Sam Liu

Sam Liu, winner of the Il Circolo Piano Transcription Prize

on what his inspiration and tips to play and practice Chopin's Mazurka in Am, Opus 17 #4. Sam has taken masterclasses with renown Bach expert Andrea Hewitt and Liszt expert Leslie Howard, and was 1st prize winner of the Il Circolo Piano Trancscription competition.

First let's listen to Sam Liu performing the Chopin Mazurka in A minor opus 17 no.4
in Canada on a Bechstein Grand

What attracted you to this particular Mazurka?
I heard this Mazurka for the first time on Horowitz' Deutsche Grammophon's (DG label) recording, what I regard as a truly transcendental performance. The sound Horowitz created, was simply surreal. I recall fondly many evenings in Canada driving home from piano teaching, listening to this beautiful piece over and over again..

Horowitz performing Chopin's Mazurka Op.17 No.4 in Am in his home, from "The Last Romantic" 1985

What characteristics of Chopin and the Mazurkas must you keep in mind when playing this piece?
A Mazurka is known for its "Mazurka pulse", or stressing on the second beat of the bar. Of course, this is just a rule-of-thumb, and the amount of rubato on the beat will have to be judged by the music and the taste of the performer. In fact, the Mazurka pulse is featured throughout many of Chopin's oeuvres, and it is important to bear in mind that when a passage of Mazurka-like quality appears in any Chopin's music, e.g. theme A of the first ballad #1 in G Minor, the feeling of Mazurka pulse will have to be present, as the music suggests. Understanding the mazurka pulse will help one to find the very essence of Chopinesque rubato.

What technical and musical challenges does this mazurka present and how do you overcome them?

Challenge - Gracenotes As the Mazurka itself is not difficult to play, the only technical difficulty are the quick grace-notes which appears many times in different parts of the sections. These grace notes have to be played with tremendous delicacy, with the aim that they should not at all feel difficult or even a struggle to play; or even noticed [they should not stand out too much]. To achieve this effect, one could break them into smaller sections to practice, make sure the tone and rhythm is even, and then join them together.

Mazurkas and Waltzes - Both of which Chopin wrote many, are in the same time signature 3/4 time, can you tell us more about the differences and the requirements of the challenging (Mazurka) Pulse? In contrary, the musical difficulties are much more demanding than it looks on the page. Waltzes in general should be play with equal rhythm between each beat of the bar, with an emphasis on the first beat. It should be played rather flowingly, with a feeling of one beat per bar, as in contrary to the Mazurka where it swings on the second beat. However, arguments have been made that the slow Chopin Waltzes should be generally treated as a Mazurka, with the famous recording of Cortot plays Waltz op 64 no.2 with the Mazurka pulse. Nonethelss, the more general ones, such as op 18 and op 34 set, should be played as a normal Waltz character in my opinion.

On top of the finding and balancing the Mazurka pulse, there are several interpretative difficulties involved. Firstly, the same phrases repeat many times, and section repeat at the end. With all these repeats, it is crucial to play them a little bit different each time, as if you are on the journey and each time when you reached a same scene you evoke different emotion towards it.

How would you say the different rhythmic emphasis of the mazurka pulse adds to the character?
The Mazurka pulse has generally been known and studied by the learnt musicians ever since it's creation. Just like when a trained musician during the Baroque period can immediately tell the tempo and character and recognize a French overture from the score alone, a learnt musician in the nineteenth century would automatically apply the Mazurka pulse to a Mazurka without questioning. It's part of the culture and understanding of music. If the Mazurka pulse wasn't added to the Mazurka, then presumably it wouldn't be a Mazurka at all! It would be just be a beatiful piece of music in 3/4.

Tip: Sustain and relate phrases
The ability to sustain a phrase is paramount for this mazurka. If one only plays the phrase as it looks on the page, the whole Mazurka will be chopped into pieces and it will not make sense to anyone. Playing through each phrase and making each phrase relate to each other is rather tricky and requires experience and understanding.

However, to get started to develop relating phrases to each other, a useful tip is anticipation.  After playing a phrase, a motive, or even a note, one should try to form the sound of the next note (anticipate) in the brain very vividly, from the pitch to the timbre of the sound and the dynamic of the sound. It is just so often that people would play with "finger" [muscle memory] rather than engaging their musical mind via imagination. A good exercise to engage the musical mind would be to play the whole Mazurka on the piano with fingers touch the keyboard without making the sound, and imagine the sound in the brain as if it is been played.

Tip: Muscle Control
In addition, it is very tempting to just play the Mazurka through, and enjoy the sound and melody rather shallowly. However, to create an heart-touching sound, it not only demands a good piano, but great concentration of the mind and great muscle control, two elements I deem crucial. As the Mazurka is so simple, it is in turn so exposed, that if the pianist's concentration falters, this will show immediately in the playing. So, to develop muscle control, practice holding the group of the notes down i.e. the group of the grace-notes, then play each finger individually, play the notes of the finger that's holding and the adjacent notes, thus to create maximum independence of the fingers

How does this mazurka compare with his other mazurkas?
Chopin was still relative young at the time of composing the mazurka, both in terms of age and his musicality development. Only a genius could create such beauty and simplicity as such a young age (Chopin composed this Mazurka around 1833, age 23).  Although this Mazurka does not have some of the sophistication he created in his later Mazurkas, such as opus 59 and opus 63, its pure melancholy and lyricism is completely sublime. The late mazurkas are much more sophisticated musically and demand a likewise more artistic demands in interpretation and delivery.

Who are your favourite interpreters of Chopin's mazurkas and why? Who are of particular inspirations to you and why?
Although I am drifting away from Horowittz's unique performance now, I still regard his interpretation one of the best I have ever heard. However, Paderewski's rendition of the piece evoke much more sincerity, and I believe it might be closer to what Chopin would have intended.

Paderewski performing the Mazurka in 1912

  I also particularly liked the recording of Richter, which is so heart-touching, if not heart-acheing, and Richter's very own way. Richter performing the Mazurka in 1950:

Sam, any further words of advice you'd like to give?
To conclude, this is a tremendously beautiful piece, yet extremely difficult to execute. It is enjoyed much by amateurs, because it is technically not too difficult to get around to the notes to get started. But, to polish it to great height can take a life-time for a professional pianist including hours of practice and experimenting with expressive possibilities.  Well, this is what a great piece of music, because of which, has it's demands and challenges, we are very lucky that these pieces have survived for us to play today. I wish you the greatest luck and best wishes for your endeavors.

About Sam Liu: Sam has won various awards such as the first prize of "Il Circolo" Competition at Italian Cultural Centre, Piano Transcription Competition, and had given recitals throughout UK and Canada including Yamaha Artist Service Europe at Chappell, London. Sam has also participated in masterclasses given by pianists Angela Hewitt, Leslie Howard, Joseph Banowetz, and Anton Kuerti. Sam frequently collaborates with his duo partner violinist Mansoon Bow, and they have performed throughout UK and in Osaka, Japan, featuring the complete Schumann Violin Sonatas. Contact Sam Liu.

Further Reading

Article: A World Of Expression In A Tiny Chopin Mazurka
Article: Chopin and the unpredictable Mazurka
Mazurkas, Op. 17 (Chopin) [Wikipedia]
Sheet Music [IMSLP]

ABRSM Grade 2 Piano Sight Reading Tips - dotted crotched (quarter) notes!

2011-11-27T05:00:00.001Z

Grade 2 Piano Sight Reading Tips

Look for recurring difficult rhytmic patterns. The following recurs often and is probably the most tricky.
It is: (A) Dotted Quarter Note - (B) Eighth Note - (C) Quarter Note (USA) OR (A) Dotted Crotchet - (B) Quaver - (C) Crotchet (UK)
ABC

Now you can use rhythmic syllables such as the Kodaly Rhythm method (A) TUM -(B) ti - (C) TA if you find counting this rhythmic sequence difficult.

Rhythmic Exercises
Because the dotted crotchet is worth 3 quavers, and beat two starts on the 3rd quaver, you count it 1 - 2.

Count (A) 1-2, (B) AND, (C) 3
Clap the beat.
2nd get used to playing a single note in each hand with that rhythmic.
C-D-C try two notes in that rhythm with each hand
C-D-E or E-F-G three notes in the rhythm in each hand

Top Global Piano Commercials (Adverts) from Cheetos to Shampoo

2011-11-23T05:00:00.000Z

The piano sage blog is pleased to present piano featured commercials advertisements from the last 50 years.

Hamlet Cigars (UK) 1966, a piano teacher, a classic. Disonant piano playing which transforms to the theme of Bach's Air on a G String.

Michael Jackson - performs for a 1992 Pepsi Ad - with excerpts from "I'll Be There" (USA)

Bob Hoskins - It's Good to Talk Product - BT (British Telecoms) 1995. Bob Hoskins plays some excerpts of the great piano accompanied love songs, in this advertisement for phone company British Telecom.

Marks and Spencers (UK) - Loans Advertisement 1998. Jazz singing on top of a piano - perhaps inspired by the Fabulous Baker Boys movie?

Piano Stairs Ad for Volkswagen, which is shot in Stockholm, Sweden. The piano keys activate sounds as people step on them, clever genius! c2009

Myleene Klass was in the UK's Popstars tv competition band 'Hearsay, she's also a classically trained piano graduate from the Royal Academy of Music. Pantene (UK). This came out in 2009, to advertise hair product Pantene Pro V's 'Volume and Body'

Cheetos (USA) "Take a Cheetos Break" 2011 playing Chopsticks to the annoyance of the Piano salesman

Simple 5 finger Piano Songs - Tunes for complete beginners

2011-11-21T13:02:00.001Z

Chopin's Left Hand

It's a dillemna for many piano teachers and perhaps a frustration for beginning piano students. They want to play tunes they know and recognise, but in the interests of reading music, they'll have to plough through exercises in their tutorial book, playing one or two notes at a time. However, there's a lot of five finger piano tunes you can learn or teach quickly. Furthermore, there's merit in getting all five fingers moving to develop finger independence early on. It's also very motivating for a student to start playing familiar tunes.

Starting on C - Five Finger Position Pieces

Ode to Joy (theme) - from Beethoven's 9th Symphony
E E F G GFED CCDE EDD
3 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 2

EEFG GFED CCDE DCC
3 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 2 1 1

Oranges and Lemons

535 31 234 2 5 31

Jingle Bells
333 333 35123 444 4433 3332 325
333 333 35123 444 44 33 55 421

Frere Jacques (theme)
123 1 123 1 345 345

Pieces that can be played on the black keys
Starting position 1,2,3 fingers on three black notes (F# G# and A#) and the 5th finger on the higher (C#).

Merrily We Row Along AND Mary Had a Little Lamb3212 333 222 355
321 233 322 321

Likewise these pieces can be played on the same five finger pattern starting on C as well.

Hot Cross Buns (submitted by Golda Levitan)
Played on 3 black keys
Left Hand; 1 2 3 RIGHT HAND 3 2 1

HOT CROSS BUNS Bb Ab Gb
HOT CROSS BUNS Bb Ab Gb
ONE A PENNY Gb Gb Gb Gb
TWO A PENNY Ab Ab Ab Ab Ab
HOT CROSS BUNS Bb Ab G b

Young children like to sing and play it at the same time. Play one hand at a time - then play them together. Enjoy.

Further Reading

When will my child be ready for the grade 1 exam? [Mypianoteacher blog]

Advanced Piano Sight Reading Tips: for exams, playing, or learning a new piece

2011-11-14T05:00:00.008Z

Alan Dorn performing Chopin's Bbm Sonata Finale from memory

Following the previous post 8 Essential Piano Sight Reading Tips: for exams or learning a new piece, I am pleased to disseminate some tips from pianist Alan Dorn, LRSM, (Licentiate Royal Schools of Music in piano performance). Alan's skills at learning new pieces enabled him to rapidly prepare for the FRSM - the highest diploma level of piano performance. Here are his tips:

If possible, have a quick ‘skim read’ of the whole piece before you start playing. This helps you grade the dynamics, understand climactic points, set the right tempo etc. Otherwise you can start off playing crotchets at 160 and then suddenly see some semiquavers!
If you are struggling to play all the notes, make sure of the melody and the bass.
Try and look as far ahead as possible. Sight reading is basically looking ahead and memorising a short chunk, then playing this while memorising the next chunk.
Playing a difficult bit through on the surface of the keys (ie without sounding the notes) before you start can be helpful.
Practice hearing the music in your mind before you play – then compare with the actual sound and see how you did.
Trade-off between tempo and playability – it’s probably better to give a good performance at half-speed than half a performance up to tempo (?)
Articulation – don’t forget to play legato/staccato etc as indicated.
Phrasing – try to read phrase-by-phrase rather than note-by-note so you can play musically.
Voicing – don’t forget to bring out the melody.
Tone quality – even though you’re sight-reading, try to play with a full tone.
Poise – don’t make it obvious that you’re unsure about the notes – play as if you’re very confident.
Rhythm – don’t play like a metronome – use rhythmic accents to bring the music across.
Practice reading chords so you can read them as quickly as single notes.

8 Essential Piano Sight Reading Tips: for exams, or learning a new piece

2011-11-07T14:17:00.006Z

As exams loom around the corner, I thought I'd offer some sight reading tips, which can be applied to learning new pieces too. Reading music requires regular, if not daily practice. With all sight reading no matter the instrument, you need to pay attention to these 8 elements, weakness in any one area will affects your delivery of the piece.

Notes - play the correct notes, within the designated key signature, and in the correct register. Playing correct notes, sounds easy but can be problematic in key signatures with lots of flats or sharps, and additional accidentals.

Also, are you also actually playing in the correct register too, or are you an octave too high or to low? Students with non full sized electronic keyboards may find it hard to locate middle C, when it comes to playing on an exam full sized piano keyboard.

How to improve? Music theory workbooks can help students gain a visual memory of the notes, make sure they play through the exercises on the keyboard though.

Books: Grades 1-5 (Beginner to intermediate)
Improve your sight reading (Paul Harris) (Faber Publishing)
Joining the Dots (Alan Bullard) (ABRSM Publishing)

Flashcards such as those by Hal Leonard and Chester can be have notes in the bass clef and treble cleff with a visual guide to where the note is on the keyboard. With these cards, you can mix up or place in a sequence (C-G,etc.) and have the student try and play these on the keyboard.
Rhythm - can you clap or tap the rhythm correctly? Are you giving silences to the appropriate rests. You can say "shhh" for each beat of the rest. A minim (half note) rest would be two beats of "shh shh".

Younger students of the age of 4 or 5 may have problems counting the beats especially with dotted rhythms and quavers (1/8 notes) as they understanding counting and adding of fractions. So a solution for this is to use rhythmic words for complex rhythms, Quavers (1/8 notes) you can use "ta ka", and Te for crotchets (1/4 notes). Some teachers make up words, for example a teacher I knew used Apple for quavers (1/8 notes) and Pie for crotchets (1/4 notes) You can use rhythmic syllables for counting notes Kodaly has a set of Rhythm syllables; and there's also a Takadimi method.
Dynamics - monotone is boring! Did you play the piece in all one level. How do you bring this home to one student. Read a poem or nursery rhyme, or song with one monotone voice, next use dynamics in your reading - whispers, normal voice, and shouting, I'm sure they'll agree it's more interesting.
Flow and Pulse Music is storytelling in time and therefore has a natural flow and pulse to it. Therefore, maintaining a steady uninterrupted pulse is another vital element to music making and sight reading.

To understand the importance of keeping musical flow, play on the piano (if you are a teacher) or if you are a parent who doesn't play the piano play a youtube video or a music mp3 track to your student/child and pause the music every 5 seconds or so, get them to feedback on why the music wasn't enjoyable. This will quickly bring home the importance of keeping the music going.

Another exercise is to play twinkle twinkle little star but suddenly stop playing every in random places. Imagine you are accompanying a singer or another instrument, you can't afford to stop the music.
Tempo - "I feel the need for speed" are you up to speed? Or should you put on the brakes? playing as close to the tempo marking as possible while maintaining accuracy. Dolmetsch provides a good guide to tempo markings from anything Adagio to Presto, complete with bpm - beats per minute metronome suggestions.
Coordination - Proprioception is required, meaning your hands and fingers know where they are on the keyboard without having to look at them constantly, so in effect, for some passages, you can play with your eyes closed! This helps prevent interrupting the music by constantly looking from score to your hand and finger position. Your fingers have in fact memorised the spacing between the notes of the piano.
Spirit - with "Emotional Content" emotional content, energy, and musicality and some clues are indicated in some sight reading tests.
Patterns - look for patterns, which is easier said than done. In other words, look for notes that may move up in parallel motion in the same direction, scale fragments, appeggio patterns, broken chords you may have practiced before, motifs.

Further Reading

Advanced Piano Sight Reading Tips: for exams, playing, or learning a new piece
Piano Sightreading Blog (last updated January 2011)

Please share your experiences and knowledge by commenting on this blog post, I'd love to hear from you.

Andras Schiff on Chopin: legacy, character, and life.

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000Z

Chopin Portrait by Maria Wodzińska 1836

In 1999, pianist Andras Schiff collaborated with Mischa Scorer,
Chopin with Andras Schiff 1999 production: Classical Tv Entire Video [high quality] : or on Youtube: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6. It's not the first time the two had collaborated, previously in 1997 they produced the Wanderer for BBC Omnibus about the life of Franz Schubert. Below is a summary of the ideas Schiff presents about Chopin, his life, composition characteristics, musical influences, and legacy.

Characterising Chopin's Music
Chopin grew up in the Polish countryside, and the folk music such as mazurkas influenced his composition, it's considered by Schiff as the most Polish utterances (characteristic). It was his favourite genre of music, and kept his connection, adds Schiff to his country through polonaises and mazurkas.

Asked how he would describe his music, it always contains an element a Polish word 'zal' which means it contains an element of the polish word: sadness, nostalgia, sorrow, regret, melancholia, up to a degree of fury and anger. Schiff says it is with his music he could open up and pour out his soul.

Chopin's musical upbringing and education
Born in 1810, Chopin grew up in Warsaw, Poland at the time when was under Russian rule.
Chopin's both parents were musical. Chopin's father, a teacher, played the flute and violin, his mother sang
and played the piano. Chopin picked up a lot from this experience, by listening and singing along.
It is interesteresting to note, adds Schiff that, Chopin never really had piano lessons. [Although, wikipedia indicates Zywny was chopin's first piano teacher] His first teacher, Czech Wojciech Zywny, a violinist and composer, taught Chopin love and respect of the music of Bach and Mozart, whom he regarded as having the best taste. Chopin's 24 preludes and fugues, in fact are directly inspired from Bach's - which are regarded as essential technique, which the impressario Hans Von Bulow called the "Old Testament of the Piano".

Enrolled at the, Warsaw Conservatory, studying under Jozef Elsner celebrated composer of operas, so he had a great formal training of counterpoint, harmony and composition, but never of piano playing, so Schiff wonders how he became one of the greatest composers of the piano, which he marvels as close to a 'miracle'.

By age 18,19 Chopin was firmly established in the musical society of Poland, he had written his both two Piano Concertos, and established as a national celebrity. He had even performed for the Tsar of Russia. It was recognised he needed to seek wider opportunities within Europe so he had to 'cut the umbilical cord' of his fatherland. In, november 1830, age 20, he left Warsaw for Vienna, a very important and vital step for Chopin. He never returned to Poland. On Chopin's wish, after he died, his heart was taken back to his native Poland.

Paris & the soirees
September 1831 was when Chopin arrived in Paris, Schiff notes that this was a great time, with a new bourgeoisie class emerging, with a love of literature, architecture and the arts, and a good family would own a piano. So Chopin provided piano lessons to these families and attended these families' frequent soirees (small intimate circles of friends) improvising and playing till 5 or 6 in the morning. Attendees could immerse themselves in Chopin's music forgetting all their troubles and miseries. Chopin disliked performing for large audiences, but had to in order to further his reputation. His concerts at the Paris Conservatoire, became legendary events.

Capturing Revolutionary Spirit
Europe was in turmoil politically and economically, following the Napoleonic wars at this time. On the way to Paris, he heard that the latest Polish uprising against Russian occupation had been crushed, which Chopin reflects in his Revolutionary Etude in C# minor, written at this time, which Schiff believes is the most tragic and dramatic in Chopin's music. In his diary, he writes of his despair fearing that his friends and family are raped and executed.

Chopin's pianistic innovations

After Chopin you couldn't write piano music the same way again, he has revolutionised and changed the sound and concept and approach to the piano.He has innovated piano technique, such as, in fingering, using the thumb on the black keys, which was previously forbidden. Chopin's fingering allows more of a liberty of playing on the keyboard. Schiff displaying a plastercast of Chopin's left hand, describing it as elegant and aristocratic. Chopin had an enormous stretch in his hands and great suppleness. Chopin was the first to say the hand has a natural position on the keyboard, each finger has a distinct character and personality, and therefore should not be similar to each other. Chopin recognised that that 4th finger is a weak one (he called his 3rd finger a long nose and the 4th a disobedient one). So Chopin wrote to the requirements of the hand, which Schiff demonstrates with the Etude in Ab. Chopin's idea of virtuosity, the cultivation of the beauty of sound. Schumann and Mendelssohn revered Chopin's music, however Chopin was not as recipricol in his admiration, not even opening Schumann's Kreisleriana, which was dedicated to him for months.

Chopin's legacy
Chopin was one of the greatest composers ever,on the highest level as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert. He has been portrayed as a wild flamboyant romantic, physically weak and fragile, dying of consumption; a very sentimental image; [however] there is no element of sentimentality in his music.
One of the great Chopin interpreters and womaniser adds Schiff, Artur Rubinstein said that Chopin's music was the greatest seducer.

Further Reading

Chopin's 'Soul and Heart', Byron Janis, Wall Street Journal, 2010

Lefties: Poet, Pianist & Nobel Prize Winner: Tomas Tranströmer & Concert Pianist Leon Fleisher - Left-Handed Piano Playing and Repertoire

2011-10-24T05:00:00.005+01:00

The first left handed piano was made in 1998, this is a mirror image or reverse of a normal piano - but with the bass up on the right and the highest notes on the far left. This assumes you can play with both hands, but what happens with you lose complete control of your right hand altogether. Can you still play? let's look at these inspiring stories from a nobel prize winner and some notable concert pianistss.

Tomas Tranströmer at the piano

Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011. Tomas is also a keen pianist, however, a stroke has meant that he can only play with his left hand. He still performs in recitals, in some cases, his poetry is read while he plays.

Interview with Tomas Tranströmer

Paul Wittgenstein - Left Handed Pianist

Leon Fleisher lost use of his right hand fingers and thumb after a gardening accident which almost ended his concert career. However, he was inspired to continue on thinking of Austrian Concert Pianist, Paul Wittgenstein, whose right arm was blown off during world war I. Wittgenstein commissioned compositions for the left hand from distinguished composers, Richard Strauss, Korngold, Hindemith, Prokofiev, Ravel and Britten. So now, there's established repertoire for the left hand. Fleisher cites there must be over 1,000 compositions in existence for the left hand alone, including a Brahms arrangement for left hand of Bach's Chaconne for solo violin written for Clara Schumann when she injured her right hand.

Probably one of the most well known is Ravel's Concerto for the Left-Hand.

Ravel's Concerto for the Left - Hand performed by Leon Fleisher

James Rhodes, plays Etude Pour La Main Gauche "Etude for the Left Hand" Op. 36 by Felix Blumenfeld

Further reading (left handed pianists and repertoire)

Leon Fleisher: 'My life fell apart...' (Independent, UK May 2010)
Nobel Prize Winner Plays One-Handed Piano After Stroke (ABC News, USA, Oct 2011)
PIANO MUSIC for the LEFT HAND ALONE Necessity is the Mother of Invention (Forte Piano Pianissimo website)
A piano that's right for lefties (BBC News, 1998), [Grand Piano for the Left Hand]
Review: The House of Wittgenstein by Alexander Waugh, Daily Telegraph UK, Sep 2008

Musical Monarchs: Queen Victoria, Felix Mendelssohn and King Henry VIII

2011-10-18T05:00:00.002+01:00

By George!- Mozart, Handel, and JC Bach
The British Royal family has a history with music, and some of the greatest composers. Handel for instance, composed for King George I. Mozart, age 8, performed for King George III and Queen Charlotte in the newly constructed Buckingham Palace in 1764. Queen Charlotte's music-master Johann Christian Bach, JS Bach's son, gave Mozart the ultimate sight reading test of the most difficult works of JS Bach, Handel and Alder, which Mozart performed with ease, amazing his distinguished audience. Mozart also accompanied Queen Charlotte, who sang an aria. The Mozarts (Leopold and Wolfgang) later dedicated six sonatas, the Opus 3 Sonatas to Queen Charlotte.

Some of the Kings and Queens were excellent musicians as well as composers. King Henry VIII - King and Composer Notable royal musician tudor King Henry VIII, who composed the song - "Pasttime with Good Company"

Song With Words, but not by Mendelssohn
Queen Victoria loved singing and played the piano as well, she commissioned in 1856, an Erard Piano, the same piano brand from France that Chopin played. She also had many Bechstein grand pianos, including a gilded one at Buckingham Palace. Her favourite composer was Felix Mendelssohn, and especially loved "his" songs.

Felix Mendelssohn first met Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1842.

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria meeting Mendelssohn
(srce: Mendelssohn Project)

Felix Mendelssohn Age 20, 1829

To honour Mendelssohn's visit, Queen Victoria sang her favourite Mendelssohn song 'Italien' or 'Italy' but it turned out to be written, Felix admitted by his other talented sibling, Fanny Mendelssohn. In those days, women weren't allowed to pursue careers as composers, so Felix honoured her by publishing the composition under his name.

Japanese duo Hiro and Akiko perform Fanny Hensel - Mendelssohn's Italien, a favourite of Queen Victoria

Felix Mendelssohn also performed his famous piano pieces "Songs Without Words" for the royal couple. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband was a talented organist and was thrilled to hear Felix Mendelssohn play the organ at Buckingham Palace. Mendelssohn, later dedicated his Scottish Symphony to Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria said of Mendelssohn on news of his death, he regarded him "the greatest musical genius since Mozart."

Further Reading

Victoria's piano strikes right note for palace exhibition (Guardian -UK, 31 July 2004)
Mendelssohn & England (Dr Dick's Mendelssohn World Blog)
Prince Albert's Compositions: Queen Victoria's Consort wrote sacred music
The JC Bach - Mozart Connection (Bar Ilan University, Israel)
Mozart charity shop find only 'one of 10 in the world' (BBC News, 8.06.11)

Amazing pianists - austistic blind savant Derek Paravicini - musical genius!

2011-10-11T05:00:00.003+01:00

Source: wikipedia

Derek Paravicini is blind, has autism. He has the skills classified as a musical savant, which means he can play any piece back perfectly he has ever heard (as most savants can). This reminds me of Mozart's superb memory when he notated the Gregorio Allegri's Miserere from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel music after just one hearing. He exceeds the skills of most musical savants, because not only can he play back any piece, but he can also play the song in another particular style (reggae, jazz) or particular pianist (George Shearing, etc.) He played on the BBC radio show "In Tune" he performed Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks in the style of Tango.Watch the following videos to see Derek Paravicini's remarkable talent in action.

Derek was featured in the 2010 Stan Lee's Superhumans in a jazz challenge showdown, with 95% accuracy! And then performs "Yes we have no Bananas" in the style of Scott Joplin in the key of Bb on the fly! See the video and be amazed.

Here's a trailer of Derek Paravicini highlighting his previous performance for London's Southbank

Derek Paravicini on US documentary 60" Minutes. In this documentary he can change any tune into the style of jazz pianists Dave Brubeck and Oscar Peterson.

Excerpt from Nova - Musical Minds (Oliver Sach's documentary)

Excerpt from The Musical Genius - see what happens in Derek's mind when he listens to emotional content in music

Prince William and Prince Harry play the piano as toddlers!

2011-10-04T17:11:00.004+01:00

The Daily Mail published an article showing video footage of Prince William and Harry playing the piano as children for a photoshoot. Here's the Youtube footage

It's great the young princes are exploring the sound world of the piano. No doubt, had they persisted in their interest, they would have had piano lessons.
Earlier in March 2011, before Prince William's Royal wedding, the piano spotlight was on Kate Middleton, who took piano lessons, reaching grade 3, when she was 8 years old in Bucklebury Berkshire, UK.

Kate Middleton's piano teacher David Nicholls composed a "A Song for Kate (and William)" in honour of their wedding.

10 reasons to choose a Digital or Acoustic Piano - a guide to selecting

2011-10-03T05:00:00.025+01:00

An acoustic piano is basically a traditional piano made out of wood, steel strings, with a wooden soundboard. It requires tuning of a minimum twice a year. Digital pianos as the name suggest are electronic pianos with touch response. A digital piano can be either a hybrid - combination of acoustic and digital, which are usually at the higher end range.

Roland Fp-7f Digital Piano, one of the state of the art digital pianos

Characteristics of Digital Pianos

Digital pianos don't require tuning - tuning in the UK (London) can cost up to £55 ($85 usd) a piano.
Depending on the model, can be very portable (especially the stage or performance models) and can be moved to different rooms, upstairs and downstairs of the house with ease. An acoustic piano would be very heavy indeed and would require a professional piano mover to do so to move up and down floors.
Are regulated evenly - so the touch response is even throughout the entire piano guaranteeing a consistent even touch. You can even vary the touch responsiveness of the keys too.
The digital piano can be sampled on a more expensive and superior grand acoustic piano, so in effect you are gaining the recreated sound of a much more expensive piano at a cheaper price.
Can be used with headphones, so perfect for flats or apartments with thin walls.
Additional sounds - you could have anything from a vibraphone, harpsichord or strings, and sound effects.
Recording ability - play back your playing with a recording feature (not available on all models)
Midi - (not available on all models) capture your playing for computer studio recording and mixing
Some models have built-in metronomes and rhythm drum accompaniments (which is great for jazz and pop playing)
Affordable with a range of prices to suit every budget.

Murray McLachlan, Chair of the European Piano Teachers Association, demonstrates the versatility the Yamaha Avant Grand N1 Digital Piano

Characteristics of Acoustic Pianos

Harmonics - basically the strings of a piano will vibrate sympathetically with each other, the whole piano through it's wood will resonate, which in turn with the proper technique can produce a Singing quality.
Double escapement - means you can play rapidly repeating notes, some digital pianos have started to introduce this, such as the Roland range.
More nuance - to test this, hold down a key very gently to produce a small sound, the mid range digital pianos will have this feature.
An acoustic piano is the minimum requirement to practice for serious concert performing, and a must if you are in the higher grades of piano 6-8 (ABRSM)
Most piano exams are held on acoustic pianos, therefore, you'd have a distinct advantage in controlling the dynamics.
They require tuning up to twice a year, which adds to the yearly cost. Tuning in the UK (London) can cost up to £55 ($85 usd) a piano, so that's up to £110 ($160) a year in tuning possibly.
Are not so portable, due to the weight of the steel strings and metal frame, you'll need a specialist mover to move an upright piano up a flight of steps.
Performance of the piano is affected by and can be damaged by atmospheric conditions - such as central heating (remember heat expands the components) or dampness (if stored in a garage - a no no - which can cause the soundboard to shrink)
If buying used and privately, you'll need a piano technician to inspect the piano to make sure you're not getting a lemon!
Vary tremendously from one instrument to another in terms of the tone, touch (evenness) the pedaling (how far and how rigid you have to depress to get sustain)

How to Choose the Perfect (acoustic) Piano for you and your family (ABC 4 - Utah)

Acoustic Piano: The story of Estonia Pianos - hand crafted pianos from Estonia - virtuoso pianist Marc Andre Hamelin owns one!

Further Reading

Best Digital Piano Reviews 2011 (Pianos Guide Website)
Digital Pianos - Buyers Guide (MI Pro - Music Instrument Pro)
Buyers Guide to Pianos (Acoustic Versus Digital)
Hybrid Pianos (Acoustic and Digital Piano Buyer)
Acoustic or Digital - What's right for me? (Acoustic and Digital Piano Buyer)
Compare Digital Piano Features side by side US Based
AZ Piano News (Lots of up-to-date reviews on digital pianos) US Based

Gilmore Young Artist - Conrad Tao - Pianist Extraordinaire..

2011-09-27T04:00:00.002+01:00

Conrad Tao and George Li are two US based young pianists who have won the 2012 Gillmore Young Artist Prize. Previous recipients include Jonathan Bliss and Yuja Wang. Conrad started playing tunes on the piano at 18 months and formally started learning the piano after the violin around age 3. His first piano performance at 4, and by age 8 he was performing his first concerto - Mozart Piano Concerto in A Major K414 with the Utah Symphony. His biography with the record label IMG reveals that he has even composed his own piano concerto and received from Obama, the Presidential Scholar for the Arts in 2011. As of August 2011, Conrad studies under Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky at the Julliard School of Music (pre college level).

Watch his label IMG Artist's Press Video

Conrad performing the Bach Ouverture in the French Style, BWV 831, Movements 5-7 at Julliard in 2010

Conrad performs the Rachmaninov Prelude Opus 23 No.2 in B Flat Major

Conrad Tao performs Carl Vine Piano Sonata, 2nd Movement at Julliard in 2010

Piano Prodigies Ying-Shan Tseng - Blind 8 year old child prodigy from South Africa

2011-09-18T05:00:00.001+01:00

South African Taiwanese girl Ying-Shan Tseng is blind yet this child prodigy performs Tchaikovsky and Mozart piano concertos at the tender age of 8. I read about Tseng from an article in the UK's Daily Mail newspaper. How does she learn music, you may ask? The sheet music or score is in Braille music format.

About Ying-Shan, she started playing at the age of 4 and has won many young junior piano competitions in South Africa. Her piano teacher - Elise Van Harken (sp?) realised her talent when she learned within one month, songs that normal sighted kids learned in several months. She's an inspiration to her teacher, with her amazing perseverance and dedication

South African news - Tv Show - Carte Blanche. This following clip tells her story.

2009 News Video on Ying - Shan

Her most recent performance on Youtube - in May 2011

A recital showcase age 7, in South Africa - later in the video she performs the theme to the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto.

How to play Rachmaninov's Prelude in G Minor: tutorials, tips, masterclasses Opus 23 No.5

2011-09-12T00:00:00.012+01:00

Overview
The Opus 23 preludes were dedicated to Rachmaninov's first cousin, Alexander Siloti, and musicologist James Frazier notes that they owe much of their style to the second piano concerto (especially in the luscious B section). Ashkenazy on the preludes: they contain “an unmistakable Russian intensity, strong lyrical melodies, and changes of character that range from sublime sweetness to passionate virtuosity.”
Thailand based British expatriate pianist Paul Barton adds, that you get all these attributes in one go with the G minor prelude. In Paul's Youtube tutorial he describes the G minor prelude as a Paradox like so much of Rachminov's music - it's about staying in control while letting go at the same time; the immense technical challenge of playing the notes vs. at time soaring, passionate music, seeming desperate to escape from them. Written in 1901, this prelude is second in popularity to the C Sharp minor (opus 3) Prelude but Paul is convinced that popularity of the G minor is increasing. Paul has clearly read Angela Glover's work and quotes from legendary pianist Josef Hoffman - anyone who could write this (prelude) must be noble. Paul describes the form of this prelude like a Classical Rondo with A-B-Transition-A form and the character of the 'B' section as ephereal, poignant with a Spanish flavour and feels like an improvisation [Thiollier].

Paul Barton's tutorial and tips of how to practice and play the G Minor Prelude

Excerpt of Paul Barton's tips:

First learn the notes. Try to resist playing at full speed to keep the musical ideas and enthusiasm fresh.
Avoid any tension in your arms, shoulders and wrists
Section A - Play Chords and Change Position [3:00] Play the first chord in any group which is repeated. Play it once so avoid repeating them first of all (rather than 3 times as indicated), in order to make the shape of the chords and to be able to change position,
It's a great piece to work and focus on, you can work on chords in one section then appegios in another.
Middle section or 'B Section' which creates a 'trio effect' - overemphasize in your practice the countermelody (so you can bring this out later) [10:30]
There are no pedal markings indicated in the score (so you'll need to balance the clarity of the melody in relation to the staccato chords)
In the B section, if you can't reach all the notes as Rachmaninov had extremely large hands, drop a note but retain those notes in the chord that retains the best colour.

Rachmaninov plays the G Minor prelude himself - notice how he gives equal emphasis to the thick chords in Section B (as opposed to bringing out the fifth finger top melody line)

Paul Barton's favourite performance of the G Minor Prelude is by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Further resources

An Annotated Catalogue of the Major Piano Works of Sergei Rachmaninoff [Chapter 8 Preludes], Angela Glover, Florida State University
John Bell Young masterclass Part 1 of 2 (Youtube) filmed at the Univerisity of Florida, Tampa.
Sheet Music (IMSLP)
"Ten Preludes, Opus 23", Rachmaninov - Earl Wilde CD Notes by James E Frazier, P 15, 2008

Ipad Piano Pianism - Piano Apps with Lang Lang and Stephen Hough

2011-09-05T06:00:00.000+01:00

UK based concert pianist Stephen Hough reviews Piano Apps (Pianist Pro and the Magic Piano) on the Ipad for the Daily Telegraph in 2010. He even mentions to Lang Lang's Flight of the Bumble recording in San Francisco.

Lang Lang tries out Flight of the Bumble Bee on the Ipad

Lang Lang performs Flight of the Bumble Bee on stage with an Ipad in San Francisco. It's amazing that this unofficial recording has had over 1.3 million views! Now that's viral

Piano's Funniest Moments 5: Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie Piano Materclass

2011-08-29T05:00:00.012+01:00

The British Fry and Laurie comedy doubleact were big int he 1980s and 1990s. Here their
sketch takes the form of a Piano masterclass with some interesting twists and innuendo!

A stage version - with Czech subtitles! PianoStreet cites the following performance from Hysteria! Hysteria! Hysteria!” AIDS benefit in 1988. The ending is different from the above!

How to play Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu C# Minor: analysis, tips, masterclasses Opus 66

2011-08-17T06:00:00.000+01:00

Chopin's Fantasie (or Fantasy) Impromptu in C-Sharp Minor Opus 66 is one of the most popular pieces for grade 8 and above musicians to play. In order to play this piece effectively I have found the most suitable
masterclasses and tutorials from youtube and summarised them.

Firstly, Paul Barton gives the background, inspiration and form of the Fantasie Impromptu, and inspiration from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Moschelles.

Paul Barton Tutorial summary

Introduction, analysis, origin and influence of the Fantasie Impromptu C#m [0:00 to 6:12]

The term Impromptu was first used by a musical publisher in 1817, so a Romantic period invention, and can be defined as freestyle.
Fantasie Impromptu is in ternary form - or A-B-A.
Chopin didn't publish it in his lifetime
The fantasie impromptu has a lot of similarity, therefore likely to be inspired from Moscheles' Impromptu in Eb [2:30] (similar in character and tempo, and form) and third movement of the Moonlight Sonata [3:00] (similar in key - C#m and form) with one of the same runs.

Paul Barton's Practical tips (excerpt) [6:12 to End]

The right hand plays semiquavers against triplets in the left hand, if you have trouble fitting the notes together, Paul suggests accenting the notes that fall on the beats and the other notes will fall in place.
Play all the notes legato, clearly and even as you can, which takes lots of slow practice and try not to overpedal.

Katsaris Masterclass
In 1992, French Pianist Katsaris, first Prize winner of the International Cziffra Competition 1974, gives a masterclass on the Fantasie Impromptu for Japan's NHK TV (part 1 of 4)

Katsaris Masterclass Summary Part 1:

Impromptu is defined as unexpected or improvised, the piece is an elaborated improvisation [and should be played as such.]
The fast right hand melody is in two groupings of semiquavers (cut common time) so you could practice analytically and slowly the right hand melody dotted crotched (dotted 1/4 note) to build up speed.
Mood of the piece: The piece should be played more feverish, trembling, like leaves and trees in the forest quivering and trembling. 4 notes in the right hand against 3 notes in the left hand. Think of a whispering wind blowing.
Broken chords with accents: Play into the In this section, play the piano deeply (more weight) where the accented melody is especially when the thumbs play on the accent marks. Play them as chords to find the right balance with the thumb on the accent marks. Take time between the long phrases (this is demonstrated in part 2) by waiting a little bit at the end of each phrase. You can think of a bell sound effect for the accents.

Katsaris Masterclass Part 2:

Katsaris Masterclass Part 2 Summary:

Turn your hand into the direction of the accented notes, in effect adding more weight to the accented note. Practice the accented note repeating it four times.
Different colours in these phrases and this section - think that you are on a horse which runs in the wood, and your beautiful long hair is against the wind. So in effect a feeling of total freedom. [2:50] and at the end of this bridge, play pp pianisimo, to create a nice transition effect (perhaps a calming of the storm)

Katsaris Masterclass Part 3:

Katsaris Masterclass Part 3 Summary:

When Chopin played the same piece two or more times, or a repeating section, he liked to play it in different ways. So you can try with pedal and without pedal, which creates a different colour.
Or play a little bit slower
Some of the colouristic emotions you encounter in this section are: lamentations - which becomes revulsion which becomes anger (end of the section), [hmm sounds a bit like the Yoda mantra!] add weight in the keyboard.
Section B - Major Key [5:30] - Largo and Moderato Cantabile Section
The new colour effect is a sunny spell as it's in a major key. It's a new sound world.
Communicate the emotion but same time reserved, but it must always sing, each finger sings, think of the Bel Canto. Sing, even if it's not forte, sing.
Listen to the sound, control the sound, use the ear to control the sound (right hand melody).
Be aware of the tenor countermelody, [8:00] and also remember to make these sing.
Think of a little secret, something you haven't told anyone, communicate this here.
Bring out the following colours: Hope [9:30], delicacy and elegance.

Katsaris Masterclass Part 4:

Katsaris Masterclass Part 4 Summary:
Section B - Major Key [5:30] - Largo and Moderato Cantabile Section (continued)

Colouristic effects: Abandon yourself [1:15]
In the pp pianisimo sections think of a 'telling your secret' motif as mentioned earlier.
Each note must sing with phrasing, think of the bel canto, or even a violin to make the piano sing and sound more than a mere percussion instrument [5:05 - comparison with Chopin Ballade #1 in G minor]

Finale - A Section [5:40]

When restarting the finale A section, start PP pianisimo not very fast and without much pedal. So in effect you are carrying over the mood and pianisimo effect from section B.
Think of the leaves trembling but in the night, not loud, very light.
Bars 116, 117 and 118 Accent on the little finger, the upper part (right hand)
[7:42] Tortured and Suffering [bars 119-122]
Bars 130-137 Melancholic remembrance - phrase melody, pianisimo and singing which dies and becomes almost nothing.

Further Resources

Alternative versions: Final version that the most performed version of the Fantasie Impromptu in C#m is the first draft, here Artur Rubinstein plays the final version which has differences

Video tutorials from the Arioso7 blog
Sheet Music (IMSLP)
Fundamentals of Piano Practice (Chuan C Chang) Fantasie Impromptu Practice tips (page 61-63)

Actor Pianists - Hugh Laurie OBE (from TV Show House) plays the piano!

2011-08-15T06:00:00.003+01:00

Hugh Laurie (source wikipedia)

Actor Hugh Laurie OBE, Golden Globe award winner for his role in US tv show House started learning piano at age 6. (more about Hugh's musical background)

Following the success of his comedy duo with Stephen Fry, where he performs a memorable piano masterclass sketch. Laurie has been able to advocate comedy and piano to entertain on tv and the silver screen.

Here's a song he performs a comedic song "Mystery"

His own humourous ode to 'America'

Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis playing 'Heart and Soul' in Stuart Little

Chopin Ballade No.1 in G Minor Tips, Resources, Tutorials, and Masterclasses (how to play) Opus 23

2011-08-05T17:26:00.008+01:00

Overview

Score (Everynote.com)

Chopin's Ballade #1 in G Minor (op.23) is a LRSM (Licentiate Royal Schools of Music), LTCL (Licentiate Trinity College of Music) level piece which is the same graded virtuoso level as Liszt's La Campanella, or equivalent to the final year recital for a Bmus degree in a specialist music convervatoire. I've found a collection of masterclasses from the Internet as well as academic resources as well as broad resources on how to approach and analyse this particular Ballade.

Before the masterclases, let's first listen to the Ballade by the great Krystian Zimmerman, winner of the 1975 Chopin Competition

Josh Wright from Utah giving suggestions for the Coda of the Chopin Ballade #1

Josh's tips - (Coda section) Presto con fuoco (fast with fire)

Don't just focus on the technique, focus on the artistry and the artistry will help the technique.
Voice the top hand melody and stay light
Feel the phrasing
Don't play too fast but focus on producing the artistic resolutions, colours, images you want to portray.
Keep sensitivity at the core of your practice.

Oleg Stepanov Masterclass, who studied under Lev Vlassenko at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, won the Liszt International Competition in 1956 (Stepanov has dedicated a piano competition in his memory) gives a masterclass starting off with the Chopin Ballade #1

Masterclass with Oleg Stepanov

Chopin Foundation: How to Play Chopin's Ballades by Professor Regina Smendzianka (Chopin Foundation, USA)
Chopin and the G Minor Ballade by David Björling, Luleå University of Technology Abstract The purpose of this work is to make a general presentation of Chopin, the age in which he lived, his G minor Ballade and selected editions of the Ballade. I will also compare five recordings of the G minor Ballade, and make a presentation and a recording of my own interpretation of the G minor Ballade. This work discusses his life up to the time the Ballade was published, Chopin’s development as a composer, and the period in his life when the Ballade was composed. Background material on the history of the Ballade as a genre and its development is included to give the reader an enhanced contextual understanding. The issue as to whether Chopin had a literary model when composing the G minor Ballade and his relationship with the Polish writer Adam Mickiewicz is discussed. This work considers the issue of form in the G minor Ballade, Chopin’s personality, how Chopin played, his use ofthe term ‘tempo rubato’, and how he used improvisation and composition.
Chopin Ballade #1 in G Minor Opus 23 Sheet music (IMSLP) -
Wikipedia overview of the Chopin Ballades
Descriptive analysis of the Chopin G Minor Ballade (La Folia Online Music Review)
Brief Music Analysis of the Ballades (ourChopin.com)
Full text of the translated text of Konrad Wallenrod, poetry by Adam Mickiewicz, which is said to have inspired the Ballades.(Gutenburg Project)
Frederick Scott on the Chopin Ballade in G minor (Thetutorpages)

Percy Grainger's Paraphrase on Tchakovsky's Waltz of the Flowers

2011-08-01T06:00:00.005+01:00

2011 is the 50th Anniversary of the eccentric Australian composer and virtuoso pianist Percy Grainger's death (1882-1961). According to BBC Radio 3's Andrew Mcgregor, Grainger studied in Frankfurt with pupils of Brahms, Clara schumann, and Liszt. and he best known for his composition "English Country Gardens." If you're looking for a virtuosic and melodic piece for your concert repertoire or music collection consider his paraphrase on Waltz of the Flowers is from Tchaikovsky's Ballet - the Nutcracker.

Japanese pianist Aya Nagatomi performs Percy Grainger's Paraphrase on Tchakovsky's Waltz of the Flowers

If you enjoyed Aya Nagatomi's playing, she has released the following cd Liszt: La Campanella Piano Works

Tchaikovsky competition and Leeds piano competition prize winner Russian pianist Vladimir Ovchinnikov performs the full version

Daniil Trifonov, winner of the Tchaikovsky and Artur Rubinstein International Piano Competitions

2011-07-25T05:00:00.012+01:00

I was reading a news bulletin in the August-September edition of Pianist magazine that

Danill Trifonov won two major prestigious international piano competitions back to back within weeks of each other! So I was very curious to hear his playing and learn more about this Wunderkind.

Born in 1991 Russian Daniill Trifonov, has won prizes and competitions most of his performing life and studied at the Moscow Gnesin School of Music (school for gifted musicians - much like the UK's Yehudi Menuhin school). There he studied under top teachers, one Tatiana Zelikman, who herself studied under Theodore Gutman, student of Heinrich Neuhaus. Neuhaus was the author of 'the art of piano playing' and also taught Radu Lupu and Richter.

Tchaikovsky Competition Jurist Martha Argerich was impressed with Danill's pianism:

“Last night I listened to him again on YouTube – he has everything and more. What he does with his hands is technically incredible. It’s also his touch – he has tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that.”

-Martha Argerich; Financial Times, July 8, 2011

So what does the 2011 winner of the Artur Rubinstein Competition and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition sound like? Let's first hear the demonic element!

Artur Rubinstein Competition 2011 Performance: Trifinov performs Liszt's Mephisto Waltz at the

2011 Tchaikovsky XIV competition Performance - Gala Prize winner's concert [excerpt] Trifinov performing One of the jury members this year was Vladimir Ashkenazy! (a previous winner himself)

Trifonov performed Liszt's La Campanella as an Encore at the Tchaikovsky Competition. Here's a performance from 2008.

Now for some tenderness, Danill performs Chopin's Piano Concerto #1 at the finals of the Artur Rubinstein Competition, Israel 2011

Virtuoso Piano Paraphrase: Schulz-Elver (Strauss) on The Blue Danube Waltz

2011-07-21T06:00:00.013+01:00

Johann Strauss II composed the eternal Blue Danube Waltz in 1866. Half a century later, Polish Composer Adolph Schulz-Ever (1852-1905), paraphrased the music which became his best loved work, in arabesque style. An arabesque is a composition in the "Arab" style, much like Schumann and Debussy's arabesque compositions. Schulz-Evler studied at the Polish Conservatoire under Carl Tausig and the paraphrase was published in 1900 and 1906. The sheet music can be found here on the IMSLP website.

Adolph Schulz-Evler

I must have first heard Schulz-Evler Arabesques on J. Strauss The Blue Danube Waltz (An der schönen blauen Donau) on the Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century CD collection performed by Earl Wilde.

Here, legendary pianist Earl Wilde performs the Schulz Evler paraphrase - or Arabesques on J. Strauss The Blue Danube Waltz (audio only).

Here's legendary pianist Marc Andre Hamelin (who can play just about any virtuosic composer!) performing the same Schulz Elver paraphrase - or Arabesques on J. Strauss The Blue Danube Waltz

Tame those nerves! 9 Ways to Prepare for a Piano performance or exam

2011-07-14T06:00:00.016+01:00

Virtuoso Horowitz, also suffered from nerves (pic: lastfm)

How can we prepare ourselves so that we won't be too nervous on the performance day? Performance is not only a mental game, it's a way of life. Therefore to succeed you need to be prepared mentally as well as physically (technically). Remember even the great pianists Glenn Gould and Horowitz got nervous too, and even shied away for years from performing four times according to the New York Times.

Play for friends and family. Use every opportunity you can to play your pieces, see how you cope under pressure. You'll highlight any technical difficulties in your piece. If you can, record it and listen or watch back. Where did I hesitate? Were there any memory slips? What could make it sound better.
Record yourself on Video or Youtube you'd want to get your recording perfect, so this is also another excellent preparation technique. You can also observe your performance - your body language and posture (observe also how tense are your shoulders, arms and hands?) You can also ask piano enthusiasts from the youtube audience, your previous and current teachers, to evaluate your performance.
On the day: Play through the pieces at least once, this will boost your confidence and reinforce the muscle memory.
Relax - have a bath the night before, listen to some soothing music and calm the mind, ensure you don't schedule any other stressful event or task during the day or days preceding the performance.
Practice, practice, practice intensively, but don't burn out. Knowing that you've done the 'donkey work' in advance will boost your confidence. You shouldn't then be too worried about making technical errors, because all the hard work has been done.
Get a good night's sleep. A good night's sleep the night before isn't enough, make sure you have consistent good sleep 3 days before.
Try out the piano and venue! If you are able to, get access to the venue beforehand, either before the performance starts to rehearse through your pieces. If it's a music festival and the competitors and ajudicators haven't arrived, why not try out the piano - as long as this is permitted just to see the touch response of the piano. This will enable you time to get used to the piano and feel more comfortable in the performing environment.
Visualise success, great athletes do it, so should you. First of all, recall try a successful previous performance that went well, remember how you felt and what made it such a great performance. Apply those memories and imagine you will be giving your next best performance. In your visualisation, implant positive thoughts, that you're in total control, relaxed and focused.
When you perform, or are just about to - focus on the musical feeling and mood you wish to convey, just before you perform. Eliminate any doubts, focus on the positive, what you can do well and how you'll communicate with your audience.

Master Piano Technique: Pearly Sound - a lesson from Utah

2011-07-07T08:29:00.001+01:00

Utah's Josh Wright has some great piano tutorials for advanced pianists on Youtube. For such a young pianist he is very aware of technique and getting a great sound. In this Youtube tutorial, Josh discusses Pearly sound. Josh's inspiration's for this Pearly Sound is the playing of pianist Murray Perahia. I think this term is fairly common in North America, I don't hear this term used in the UK that often, only by my previous Canadian teacher postgraduate from the Royal Academy of Music.

Josh defines Pearly Sound as a light, clear, beautiful, fleeting sound as opposed to a heavy and muddy sound. Josh demonstrates this concept with a Chopin nocturne, and illustrates the difference and technical approach to achieve Pearly Sound. Enjoy, practise and share!

Piano comeback: more popular than ever, 40 million Chinese swear by it!

2011-06-13T04:00:00.009+01:00

A country of pianists!
In a recent article popular Chinese pianist Lang Lang has been credited for inspiring 40 million Chinese to study the piano and in 2009 featured as one of Time Magazine's Top 100 influential people..
To put that number in context, the population of the UK is approximately 62 million, and Poland is just over 38 million. And with such a talent pool of pianists to choose from, it's no wonder the next issue of International Piano Magazine features "the Chinese are coming" profiling the superstar pianists of today Yundi Li, Yuja Wang.

Piano - the king of all instruments
Furthermore, among musical instruments, the piano is the most popular instrument (Ex UK) according to
the ABRSM, (the Associated Board Royal Schools of Music, the international UK based exam body that sets the exam standards for Grades 1-8 in most musical instruments from the harp, violin, voice, and piano) In 2009, ABRSM received 150,268 entries for piano exams, 92,773 for music theory and this compares with the next popular instrument, the violin with 19,449 exam entries. Harpsichord was the least popular instrument with a mere 2 entries!

101 Pianists rehearsing (source: langlang foundation)

Why is Piano the most popular?
Pianos and their popular digital piano/keyboard counterparts can suit all budgets. It's probably chosen over the second most popular instrument - the violin because you can easily make a sound with the piano with the fingers from day 1. With the violin, the technique is immensely difficult in the initial year to produce a pleasant sound. Pianos can represent and simulate all orchestral sound ranges, textures, and effects: percussive timpanis to legato cellos, and violin pizzicato (through staccato). The repertoire is so wide ranging from jazz, blues, ragtime, pop, classical and composers Michael Nyman, Gershwin, to Beethoven.

Start clocking your 10,000 hours now
In Chinese communities, it is recognised that being good at the piano requires discipline, dedication, hard work and perseverance. In other words, Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 rule applies - this theory says in order to be an expert and the top of the game in any discipline whether drama, golf, or piano you need to put in about 10,000 hours. This hard work and dedication, the parents believe will translate into other areas of their life, like their academic and later work life. Chinese culture believes this hard work leads to success in later life. In today's society, it's so easy for children to get into a couch potato routine watching TV, playing computer games all day. And with every endeavor, it's not just quantity but quality of practice.

So if you really want to be the best at the piano or anything in life, start practicing now, make it a routine, make it your life!

Piano's Funniest Moments 4: Beethoven Fur Elise Beatbox

2011-06-06T06:00:00.001+01:00

I've been following the Daily Beethoven blog and discovered his link to the Beethoven Fur Elise Beatbox by Japanese beatboxer Hiraku Kaihatsu, and I must say it's amazing. I grew up in San Francisco in the mid 1980s when the Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Slick Rick, Egyptian Lover rappers were at their prime, so I do appreciate the artform.

The Fur Elise is perhaps one of the most popular piano pieces, some may say overplayed (mobile phone ringtones, etc), but I think this video will make you appreciate it more even if you've become sick of it!

Piano's Funniest Moments 3: Lang Lang and the Orange performing Chopin's Black Key Study (etude)

2011-05-30T07:00:00.006+01:00

Lang Lang Plays the Chopin 'Black Keys' Etude with an orange.
The Etude actually is Chopin's G flat major etude, Opus 10 no.5.

Now on live on a Spanish language tv channel, followed by the Tom and Jerry' excerpt inspired Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody.

Hear what the etude normally sounds like with some assistance from Valentina Lisitia.

Tips and Analysis of Mozart's PIano Concerto 23 in A Major (K488) with further help from Lang Lang

2011-05-23T05:00:00.004+01:00

Mozart Bust srce: (fotopedia.com)

I was asked my teacher which Piano Concerto in entirety should I learn - one of the suggestions is Mozart's Piano Concerto 23 in A Major K488. Here are some of the resources I found.

Origin of K488 Piano Concerto in A, Plus Accompanying Sketches by Dennis Pajot. This article analyses the original manuscripts and differences of sketches as well as absence of documented first performances. Mozart often improvised his cadenzas, so Pajot identifies an unusual written cadenza in the first movement of the autograph copy. Music histoiran, Robert Levin, suggests that the concerto was written for Mozart's favourite pupil, Barbara Ployer.

First Movement analysis by James Greeson of the themes and harmonic (chord) progressions of the exposition, development and recapitulation sections of the sonata form within the concerto. To get a broad overview of this movement read the Asiyclassical blog.

Second Movement - Adagio
Again, Asiyclassical analyses the second movement highlighting points that Adagio not only means slow but 'at ease', and watch out for the controlled disonance, in this movement where Mozart takes you from tension to release, from 'unstability' to 'stability', an effect which Asiyclassical claims creates movement and emotion.

Third Movement: Lang Lang's Masterclass - Articulate!
Lang Lang's masterclass on the 3rd movement of the concerto - and how to articulate and get into the character of Mozart! It features a young and talented Anna Larsen who is a beneficiary of Lang Lang's music foundation.

Index Part 2 (above)
00:00 - 01:40 Articulation
01:50 - 04:40 Character
04:50 - End minor character; climax and swing

Overview of tips on Mozart's style and Piano Concerto's third movement from Lang Lang

When switching from minor and major don't forget the colour change - Lang Lang describes as clouds (minor) and sunshine (major) .
Don't play too fast that you can't articulate the notes
Feel the swing in some of the passages
Know where the climax(es) are

Index Part 3

Balakirev's beautiful Chopin's Piano Concerto transcription & Glinka's Lark paraphrase

2011-05-16T06:00:00.000+01:00

Balakirev was a Russian composer (1837-1910) who was influenced by Glinka and Chopin. He admired Chopin so much he wrote in many forms that Chopin wrote in, and even transcribed for solo piano a movement from Chopin's Piano Concerto #1 in E minor. Here is the transcription below:

Balakirev: Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op 11: 2nd Movement: Romanza. Larghetto

Here is Balakirev's piano paraphrase of a theme by Glinka "The Lark." It's a truly beautiful piece and is rated as a ATCL (Trinity College of London diploma level) equivalent to the Dip ABRSM level. Performed by the talented Japanese pianist Aya Nagatomi.

BBC's "Mad But Glad" -Pianist Nick Van Bloss, Tourette's Syndrome, and creativity!

2011-05-09T05:00:00.006+01:00

Mad but Glad
The 2007 BBC Horizon documentary Mad But Glad explores creativity and tourette's syndrome. It's popularly theorised that Mozart suffered from Tourette's syndrome due to his toilet humour in his letters & symptomatic uncontrollable use of profanity. Another symptom, would be uncontrollable muscular activity like a facial or vocal tic. This documentary features the pianist Nick Van Bloss who got his break from this documentary and is now a concert pianist, and featured in International Piano magazine for his recent recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations.

In the course of the documentary, a scan of of Nick's brain activity during a creative and non creative process revealed his tourette's syndrome brain showing an "endless flow of creativity" - "unstoppable" and in a sense "can't switch his creativity off."

Creative genius and the senses
Nick suffers from "low latent inhibition"; where everything is exaggerated beyond the norm; figuratively
everything on fire all the time,... sensory input is so high, it eventually overwhelms them. It was suggested in the programme that geniuses such as Picasso and Van Gogh suffered from similar mental states, and to me, it's quite evident by Van Gogh's paintings.

There was a schizophrenic artist featured in the documentary that sees endless connections (symptomatic of schizophrenia), he is inspired by the very dissonant late Beethoven string quartets in his art. The levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine (as dopamine inhibitors are used to treat schizophrenia) demonstrate the link between creativity and schizophrenia; characterised by loose association - capacity of a word to set off another idea and on and on.

Insight from Oliver Sachs
When talking to Oliver Sachs, Nick says he likes Bach because it has emotion behind it yet is very controlled.
Sachs discusses what may be happening with Nick's mental state: a hightening of emotion and perception, and for these to be translated into action (ideal for a pianist). He also reaffirms the role of the dopamine as regulating the flow of emotion, thought, and perception. A fascinating documentary, perhaps some insight into the madness that Schumann encountered! (although this is widely believed due to manic depression or even syphylis, or all the above perhaps?)

Beethoven & Mozart: Alkan's Piano Concerto transcriptions for Solo Piano!

2011-05-02T06:00:00.001+01:00

Want to play a piano concerto, but lack the resources of a full orchestra and venue. Now you can perform your very own concerto, transcribed for you, in your own home thanks to the romantic composer Alkan who have transcribed two of the most famous piano concertos into a solo form.

Who was Alkan? French composer and virtuoso pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888), a child prodigy entered the Paris Conservatoire at an astonishing age of 6. He was a contemporary of Liszt and Chopin, and he knew both of these composers personally. Admired by virtuosos of his day such as Busoni, Rubinstein and Liszt. Liszt even once remarked Alkan had the finest piano technique of anyone he knew. He was Chopin's neighbour and many of Chopin's piano students transferred over to Alkan upon his death. Alkan's composition's have also influenced Ravel and Debussy. His Wikipedia biography also notes that it was at first widely believed he died when a bookcase collapsed on him after reaching for the Jewish holy book: Talmud; later corrected that it was an umbrella - coat rack instead.

Beethoven Alkan - Piano Concerto No.3 Op.37. The NorthWest Sinfonietta produced a great programme note about Beethoven's Piano Concerto in C Minor.

Mozart-Alkan Cadenza from the Mozart's Piano Concerto #20 in D minor.

Boulezian blog of a recent performance: Mozart Unwrapped (2): Kenneth Hamilton, 'Mozart - Past, Present, Future,' 21 January 2011

Here's Alkan's original work below: the Concerto for Solo Piano Op.39, which wikipedia notes takes an entire hour to play the whole piece!

Piano's Funniest Moments 2: James Rhodes and the X-Factor (Blumenfeld's Etude for the Left Hand)

2011-04-25T06:00:00.000+01:00

I couldn't believe this when I saw it, James Rhodes is truly breaking boundaries and bringing classical music to a new audience. Perhaps he'll get X-Factor fans interested in playing the piano, does that work vice versa? Classical pianists interested in the X-Factor...perhaps or perhaps not, but anyway here is the video and it's great entertainment. The piece features Blumenfeld's Etude for the Left Hand, opus 36 (sheet music link).

Here's a more 'conventional' performance, take us away James!

Further Information

About Felix Blumenfeld: The Forgotten Romantic
Blumenfeld's Etude for the Left Hand (IMSLP) Free Score - (out of copyright)

Chopin Piano Competition Winners - Marizio Pollini Interview

2011-04-18T09:35:00.001+01:00

Marizio Pollini
This 2009 Marizio Pollini tv interview for RTHK - Hong Kong, sets the scene of a great pianist: in 1960 Pollini won first prize as the youngest participant, age 18, in the International Chopin Piano Competition - Warsaw. Despite this accolade, he doesn't consider himself a specialist on Chopin and is equally acclaimed for his performances of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. Praised for his performances of Chopin and Beethoven because of his fidelity to the text; and absence of sentimentality.

Pollini toured Hong Kong during hte time of the interview with his very own familiar 9' concert grand piano and tuner to be sure that you have the best instrumental conditions for the concert. Generally, Pollini performs about 40 concerts a year.

Pollini on Chopin - has liked Chopin's works since his youth and his repertoire does extend to other composersas well. Because of the outcome of the competition, therefore, he does devote "a lot of his time and love" to the composer's repertoire. He describes Chopin's music as magic and mysterious with an extremely seductive surface. Pollini contends Chopin's works go deeper thatn being a romantic sentimental composer; he is in fact, difficult to understand - and you need to love him otherwise you won't be able to play him perfectly. When he compares his earlier recordings of Chopin, he says he now plays Chopin now more in a free way (perhaps because there's less pressure now as an established artist?).

Champion of Modern music
Audiences prefer more well known pre 20th Century classical composers as modern music is not so well known.. Pollini is an exponent of performing modern music - 20th century music is not well known; a pity to Pollini as it's full of genius.

Piano Legends: Krystian Zimmerman BBC Radio interview summary

2011-04-11T11:28:00.001+01:00

Introduction Krystian Zimmermann won the Chopin International Competition in 1975, one of the youngest winners of all time - he was in his teens. In general, he very few public recitals and interviews, which makes this BBC interview given in 2008 particularly valuable. The interview was conducted in Basel, Switzerland by Tom Stoppard for BBC Radio 3's Music Matter's programme.

Part 1. - Inside knowledge

Krystian Zimmerman describes how he acquired such an inside knowledge of the piano. Before his career as a concert pianist, he earned extra money as a piano technician wiring strings. During the communist regime in Poland, spare parts, such as those for a Steinway piano were very expensive, and thus he had to improvise and create spare parts. His developed knowledge of the workings of the piano, its acoustics, and the physics of piano manufacture, and the effect these have on its sound characteristics no doubt influence his recording process. He likens the piano to a human being - knows when the instrument is sick and how to fix it. In fact, he has 6 different pianos - which he uses to play different composers works on (i.e. Ravel, Brahms, etc). And he spends a fortune on transporting his own piano for his recitals, in fact,his custom made piano was seized by customs at JFK airport and destroyed as it was deemed a security threat containing a glue which is used in terrorist bombs.

What Beethoven could really hear! If Beethoven couldn't hear particular frequencies, in his 9th symphony why, did he compose using such high notes? Krystian says it's by listening through bone transfer:

vibrations were picked up through wooden sticks that Beethoven would lean against the soundboard and bite against them; with this bone transmision he was hearing different things. [There are even audio bone headphones that are inspired by Beethoven's hearing apparatus.]

Recording vs live Storytelling

Like many great artists and composers, Krystian is a perfectionist and not happy with his own recordings (particularly solo), approves them under stress of the recording company, etc. He believes if you allow a record to be released, you should be convinced that this is a unique artistic output which no one else has done before and that it is enriching for the market, [and above all,] it should be convincing.

At the time of the interview in 2008, his last solo recording was 1990. He dislikes the digital recording process as the sound quality is too perfect, it so clearly transmits the sounds that you don't hear the music anymore. What does he mean? There's a general hum [of the audience ] you have in the concert hall that you can't recreate in a recording. Subsequently, he

prefers his live piano concerto recordings because of the live audience, as there's an ambience (sound); (which is) not a dead perfect silence in a studio.

He states music is not sound [alone just in a recording], [it is] organised emotions in time, [a] story you tell using sound.

Part 2 To listen to the big picture, get driving
Krystian records every concert he plays. It's a great feedback mechanism to listen to yourself to find out
what you did, if you'd do it differently for the next performance. He prefers to listen to music in the car; particularly generally to the flow of the music. In fact, he drives around the house (likes to do it late at night and when there's less traffic) so that the the conscious brain is occupied with driving and the road whereas then music goes right where it needs to go. The car noise covers the (musical) details so he can actually hear the bigger picture or the story.

Continual Pianistic development: On analysis and music as artistic recreation
Krystian is inspiring because he still has a love and curiousity for music, and rediscovers links and influences amongst compositions and composers in many ways. For enjoyment, he listens and plays a lot of pieces he will never play in a concert. He analyses these pieces further and in an example would understand the influences of Rossini's influence on French music on Alkan and Satie.

Concert artistry - audience collaboration
The concert according to Zimmerman is an interpretation is made together with the audience. He has
precise ideas of what he wants to do, with 3 sets of fingering a piece which he varies according to the
acoustics, and the power he uses in various concert halls. The final thing or product of which art is made in the concert hall.

Part 3 - Globalisation Stifens musical creativity!

Globalisation of interpretation = Standardisation lessens creativity and originality
Beethoven, Opus 110, scared of this piece due to the expectations of the previous recordings in the listening psyche, and has a tremendous respect of this piece. Globalisation means everything sounds the same as (the speed of transfer of culture promotes a homogenity) and he sites the difference before mass communications in the French school; or even amongst Russian composers from Scriabin, Rachmaninov.

Part 4: The art of "no technique"

"You have fingers you put them on a keyboard - there is no technique" he once told a student. By this he means there is no technique because you play by giving meaning to every note. Each musical note is like a word in a phrase, which must make sense. Krystian Zimmermann names several influences which include his personal collaborations with pianists Arrau, Richter, Rubinstein.

In order to teach - you need to be able to articulate the problem by verbalising a solution
Krystian's political views meant that he stopped giving concerts in the USA, he explained that he
needs to have a positive attitude towards the people he would play for.

Let's Bow Out of this blog with a performance from Maestro Zimmerman. With over 2 million hits
on youtube - here's Chopin's Ballade #1 performed in 1987 and directed by Emmy award
winning Humphrey Burton, CBE.

Other pages that refer to these inteviews

How to play Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca "Turkish March" - Piano Performance and Technique

2011-04-07T15:21:00.006+01:00

Mozart is great for technique my previous teachers have told me. Why? Because getting good articulation in your playing requires a consistent touch and solid technique. Some of the scale runs are particularly challenging to keep the evenness whilst remaining minimal hand tension and to have a pearly lightness but yet voiced. The last movement from the A Major K331 Piano Sonata is commonly known as Rondo alla Turca or "Turkish March". I've started relearning this piece. I played it for competitions when I was 13. I'm going to reflect on what I've learned in my lessons from this piece and share it with you! First let's look at it's influences.

Ottoman Female musicians ( wikipedia)

Turkish Influence: This movement is inspired by the Turkish Janissary Bands, which upon further research in Wikipedia reveal that these are Ottomon Empire Military Bands - hence the use of the term 'March'. Listen to some of the Janissary music below to get you into the flavour of the turkish inspiration.

So we can definitely add the military character to the March section of the Rondo - the B section. This movement is so contrasting to the calm theme and variations of the first movement. In the 18th and early 19th Centuries, Turkish music was en vogue in Vienna, so much so that the fortepianos had an additional pedal which activated a drum and cymbal to give the rhythmic Turkish drumming effect. The Finchcock's keyboard museum in Kent, UK has such a piano - a Johann Fritz fortepiano dating from c1815.

Now let's hear a Swedish pianist perform this great Austrian Composer's piece with Turkish influence (how cosmopolitan!). This is one of my favourite Youtube recordings of Rondo Alla Turca performed by pianist Lars Roos, performed in Sweden. Lars also features the piece amongst his miniatures in his CD recording.

General tips for playing the Rondo Alla Turca

Rondo form - the piece is a rondo, which means 'round' so therefore has a structure, a normal Rondo is ABACA (each letter represents a section), but in this case it's ABCBAB and so, you come round once again to ' section A' twice. If you know the structure you won't leave out a repeating section when you don't need to! I'm reminded of some Scott Joplin pieces with their repeated sections, where we must creatively think of colour changes to not make the repeats boring or played exactly the same way!
C Section Scale runs - to avoid rushing, use your left hand as a guide to set the tempo, let the left hand lead the right hand.
Articulation - watch out for the left hand articulation in the beginning, depending on edition (I'm using the Associated Board Royal Schools of Music) the second bar is slurred and the 3-4 bars aren't!
Focused sound - don't loose the bridge in your hand (collapsing). One of my previous teachers likened the action of a precision machine - such as a typewriter imprinting notes into the keyboard with precision, accuracy and equal spacing.
Play in to the key - one of my first mistakes, I was trying to be light so much that I wasn't producing a full bodied tone, you can have a strong articulated tone yet relaxed! So play into the keybed while maintaining as relaxed hands and arms as you can.
Harmonic progression - in the C section, there are some harmonic changes, or colour changes, F#m and C#m chords - bring out these colours. Be aware of them at least - do they have a more slightly darker contrast before the next A major scale run comes up?
Tempo - it is marked Allegretto, so check these on your metronome. A lot of people will play the piece Allegretto Vivace (which is faster)

Whatever you do, don't play like a robot, like the TEOTRONICO 010

Further Resources Here are some excellent further resources that go into more detail on the Rondo Alla Turca.

Pianist Paul Lewis interviewed on the Beethoven Piano Concertos Cycle and his love for the 4th Concerto

2011-04-06T13:15:00.000+01:00

Alfred Brendel protege UK pianist Paul Lewis talks on the Guardian newspaper Youtube website about the Beethoven Piano Concertos, with samples of playing from the 4th and 5th concertos. Paul performed the cycle for the BBC Proms in 2010.

Paul Lewis loves the 4th Piano concerto because it's the most unusual; most ellusive, and challenging to play also (collaboratively - as you have to see eye-to-eye); something slightly unobtainable about it that draws him to it.

Paul Lewis talks with Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek about the Beethoven Piano Concertos cycle and further about the challenges of the 4th concerto - fragility of performing with an orchestra, minute changes of pulse, balance, and tempo. Paul also talks about the cadenzas within the concertos and what they reveal about the composer. The 5th concerto, surprisingly has no cadenza for instance! (perhaps because the piano has such a prominent role - i.e. the opening)

Top Chinese Piano Masterpieces

2011-04-01T17:07:00.003+01:00

I'm looking to start studying some Chinese piano pieces, I believe it'll benefit my understanding of sound colour - by virtue of a different tonality and music system. When I was a teenager, in the 1990s I was impressed by the virtuosity of some of the folk songs which were transcribed by piano, my previous teacher Koo Kwok Kuen had recorded Chinese Folk Piano music, so now I'm rediscovering them. Here are some great examples. I hope you enjoy them. As you can see, they are all inspired by nature!
彩雲追月 Silver Clouds Chasing the Moon (1935) by Chinese composer (Ren Guang, born in 1900) young Nigel Lim performs:

Here's another fabulous performance of 彩雲追月 Silver Clouds Chasing the Moon by Aristo Sham.

Sa Chen, a prize winner in the Van Cliburn Competition and International Chopin competition performs Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake composed by Lu Wen-cheng in the 1930s. The piece is inspired by the composer's visit to the scenic West Lake, Hangzhou.

Lang Lang performs Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake

Alaina Zhang performs Liu Yang He (by composer Tang Bi-guang)

Embroidering a Portrait in Gold 绣金匾, "Xiu Jin Bian" performed by pianist Yin Chengzong, 2nd prize winner in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Alternative title is "Embroidering the Tablet With Golden Threads"

Last but not least, the Yellow River Piano Concerto performed by the the Symphony Orchestra of the Central Philharmonic Society 中央乐团交响乐队 and pianist Yin Chengzong 殷承宗 (who arranged the piece from a work by Xian Hinghai) This 1st Movement is characterised as

Prelude: "The Song of the Yellow River Boatmen" describes the momentum of the terrifying waves of the Yellow River and uses the rapid chromaticcrescendo and long rolls of the timpani and cymbals typical of Eight model plays model operas. (source: wikipedia)

Piano's funniest moments - cartoons, parodies, and rhapsodies - Beethoven and Liszt!

2011-03-30T10:17:00.001+01:00

Roll over Beethoven!
Rowan Atkinson (b1955) (also known for his character Mr. Bean) is miming the Beethoven Pathetique sonata - (1st movement) and Moonlight sonata (3rd movement) on Youtube. And what a phenomenon, over 2 million hits!

Dudley Moore's (1935-2002) Beethoven Parody. Read more about Dudley Moore on the piano street blog.
If you like Dudley Moore's playing see my previous Blog link Piano Legends: Dudley Moore - a tribute

I found this duo from watching them on the Pianomania movie scene on Youtube. After finding out the castlist I tracked them down, they are known as the IGUDESMAN & JOO duo. And they name Dudley Moore and Victor Borge as their inspiration! They are both classically trained and met at the prestigious Yehudi Menuin school in Surrey, UK.

Rhapsody - Raspberries

Victor Borge (1909-2000) performs the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #2. I was reading from his biography on wikipedia that Mr. Borge started learning the piano at the age of 2, and that later his teachers included a student of Liszt as well as Busoni's student (Egon Petri).

Tom and Jerry playing the Hungarian Rhapsody #2 piano. This video, which won an Oscar in 1946 inspired Lang Lang.
See my blog entry - Inspiration from the Cat playing the piano!....Lang Lang did!

Last but not least, follow the link to our next funny animated piano video:
Bugs Bunny Playing the Hungarian Rhapsody #2 in C# minor

Piano Masters: Gyorgy Sebok on the Bach-Busoni Adagio - Toccata and Fugue in C, BWV 564

2011-03-28T13:02:00.000+01:00

Pianist Gyorgy Sebok, was a music professor at the University of Indiana. He studied in Hungary at the Franz Liszt Academy with legendary composer, pedgagogue Zoltan Koldaly. He disucsses his feelings and emotions
during the second world war, of being in fear of his life and also of suffering. He then performs a truly emotional storytelling of the Adagio from Bach-Busoni's transcription of the Tocatta and Fugue in C major, opus BWV 564. The piece is a transcription by Busoni of Bach's original organ work. After his introduction, it is performed Eglise d'ernen 1997. A truly haunting and emotionally deep performance, Bravo Maestro!

Further reading:
Gryorgy Obituary

Piano Legends: Dudley Moore - a tribute

2011-03-27T08:00:00.000+01:00

Dudley Moore, CBE portrait [source: wikipedia]

The 27th of March, 2011 is the 9th anniversary of Dudley Moore, CBE's death. A comedian, pianist, composer and all around loved entertainer. Dudley Moore was a very talented musician, he won a scholarship to study organ and composition at Oxford University. I include some videos of his pianistic skills combining comedy and virtuosity! Enjoy.

Here's Dudley Moore's Beethoven Sonata Parody

A biography on Dudley Moore

Dudley Moore was influenced by Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, here he is performing a Gershwin Medley

Play it again, Mr President: The Statesmen Pianists

2011-03-24T08:01:00.000Z

There's a great article Famous People who Played the Piano from the playpiano.com website. The article mentions politicians, but also includes famous actors and scientists.

Two US Presidents played the piano to a high standard: Harry Truman

Harry Truman at the Whitehouse (playpiano.com)

and Richard Nixon - here playing his own composition

Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice performs a piano Brahms quintet for the queen in 2008. Read the Daily Mail's article covering the performance. Her counterpart in the UK William Hague, Foreign Secretary started playing the piano when he stepped down as leader of the conservative party according to this 2003 article in the Guardian: William Hague - the piano years.

Ignace Paderewski, Polish Prime Minister in 1919, and a student of the great teacher Theodor Leschetizky (who also taught Schnabel) performs the Hungarian Rhapsody (clip originates from "The Art of the Piano"). I'm quite familar with one of his legacies - the Paderewski editions of Chopin piano works.

Then there are the hobbyist statesmen - pianists. Here's Vladimir Putin singing and playing Blueberry Hill on the piano.

Perhaps a little more accomplished is Germany's oldest living Chancellor Helmut Schmidt who released a CD of Mozart and Bach Piano Concertos in 2008 coinciding with his 90th birthday.

7 Tips to play Stephen Foster's Camptown Races [ABRSM grade 1 piano]

2011-03-14T11:41:00.000Z

Those of you who have seen The King's Speech, will in no doubt recognise the Stephen Foster's American folk song Camptown Races, which the King sings in order to overcome his speech impediment.

Photo: Camptown Races [Credit: jimmywayne (Flickr)]

My 5 year old daughter is learning the piece, which is on the Associated Board Royal Schools of Music [ABRSM] Grade 1 piano repertoire list.

So I include tips of best practice to help you with this piece:

1) This is a folk song afteral, so Get a feel for the character with this Johnny Cash video:

2) Understand the piece - read it's background and lyrics on Wikipedia.
3) Pentatonic scale - the key is Gb - let's immediately reduce the complexity by knowing that all notes in this piece will fall on black notes.
4) Rhythm - this is the most complex aspect of the song. Break the piece into quavers (4 in a bar) instead of counting in crotchets.
5) Coordination: Make sure you know each hand separately in the correct rhythm
before joining the two hands together.
6) Staccato - make it Bouncy: have a bouncy sound for the staccato elements - make sure you have light relaxed wrists and curved fingers on the black notes (no flat fingers)
7) Marcato section - in the bass clef. This needs to be a different and strong character, I get my daughter to play it imagining singing "I'm the Big Bad Wolf" to this particular phrase.

Here's Alan Chan (no relation) on Youtube performing the piece. My observations and improvements of his performance below.
I think Alan plays the piece fairly well with a good tempo, to improve - perhaps more lighter touch, more dynamic contrast, and the rhythm needs to be tighter at the end.

Here's an excellent and faultless performance of the piece by PianoPalace on Youtube: .

Good luck, it's a tricky piece!

Tamas Vasary - Masterclass - Lisztomania 2011

2011-03-10T09:01:00.000Z

77 year old pianist Tamas Vasary, won the Franz Liszt competition at the age of 14 in 1948 gave a masterclass at the Lisztomania festival, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Liszt - at the Royal College of Music. I summarise his main points below.

Tamas Vasary giving a masterclass in Hungary

A good pianist requires

Hands
Head
Heart (most important)

Poetry - music as art therapy
The pianist as artist aims to express feelings, emotions, and the poetry of the music. Strive to find the poetry, story behind the musical notes. Your ultimate aim in music is to make your audience forget about their daily lives, their troubles. In essence, then you become a channel for messages [from the composer] to make people forget their sadness. Art you cannot teach, but what you do is you open doors to the art through insights. On artistic and emotional integrity -don't just imitate another performer; be true to how you feel with the music, also if your teacher tells you an emotional approach to piece of music and its something you don't feel, forget about the teacher!

Playing the piano as a keyboard instrument - know how your instrument works or you may loose the conceptual connection of your playing with the instrument: the piano is one of the few instruments where you don't actually see where you play (as opposed to the violin, flute) the keys basically works like a see-saw, you depress the key and the hammers strike up. He compared playing a key on a keyboard to a tennis raquet for a tennis player. Another analogy used is when you strike a piano key, it's hitting a ping pong ball without seeing where the ball goes.

General picture of Tamas Vasary lecturing

Technique
Technique vs. Expression Tamas has ajudicated throughout his lifetime on over 300 competitions. Of the attributes accuracy/precision vs emotion, poetry and expression; he clearly chooses the latter. A criticism Tamas of purely technical players who lack expression- is that they make you fall asleep. Competitors are so concerned with accuracy of the notes in competitions that they can't relax and therefore lose the expression.

Pedalling - Horowitz was a master of it!
Making the piano sing - by slow attack upwards and forwards of the hand, never a sharp downward attack.
Gestures -make your hands act out the character required - like in the example of a storm or lightning - this requires a fast attack, get the musical character gesture right (without worrying too much about accuracy initially).
Tension in the fingers is detrimental for playing because all the energy is directed to the fingers and not into the piano.
Hand position - ready position should be like a cat or lion ready to pounce onto the next note, or attack.
Staccato playing - it's still a melody, but separated
On pianisimo (pp) like a whisper
Rests - playing rests are difficult

Tips to play Chopin's Nocturne in C Minor Opus 48 #1

2011-03-08T17:21:00.001Z

Following my blog on the 13th January 2011: Lost and Found Chopin Nocturne Youtube Tutorials - Cm C#m. I want to offer further insight into the Chopin Nocturne in C Minor, Opus 48 #1.

A postgraduate at the Royal College of Music studying his Masters in Music in piano performance who has performed the Chopin Sonatas has indicated to me that this nocturne is one of the most difficult Chopin pieces he's seen, "monstrously difficult". The level of this piece is LTCL - or licentiate of the Trinity College of Music performance level. This equates to the final year of an undergraduate performance at a music conservatoire. Wikipedia has a wonderful overview of the Nocturne in C Minor, Opus 48 (numbers 1 and 2), and a great introduction to the structure of the piece. And from the article we learn that the piece is in ternary form, A-B-A.

A Lento
B Piu Lento - (Chorale)
A Doppio movimiento

This is a piece with great technical difficulty that it's beneficial to observe a pianist performing it on Youtube. Firstly you can observe on Youtube Jane perform the piece very slowly to observe her finger and hand movements.

Here's Valentina Lisitia performing the piece on Youtube. Time indices: A: (0:00 - 2:09) B: (2:10 - 4:12) A:(4:13 to End)

A - Lento Opening Tips

Understand the harmonic structure by playing the chords by themselves
Connect using the pedal the semiquaver bass progressions to the quaver (pedal once more)
Grace notes and ornaments - play these melodically (not strict time as in the classical style) and alter the expression everytime.

B Piu - Lento Chorale

Use the soft pedal
The top line must be heard and played legato
left hand spread chords - experiment but here are some ideas - (i.e.) G-D-B- you can either break up the chord into two positions (fingers: 5, break hand then both 2nd and 1st finger). C-G-E-G (fingers: 5-2-1-2)
Connect the top note of the right hand to achieve a legato effect.

Valentina Igoshina performing the Nocturne in C Minor Opus 48 #1.

A Doppio movimiento
I found this section by far the most difficult section of the nocturne.

You must have in mind the first A section and how clear the melody was.
You are trying to recreate this clarity with the added complexity of chords in the right hand. To achieve this, play deep into the key with the chords whilst keeping the hand supple to keep the accompanying chords softer, keep the top 5th finger strong so that the melody line can be heard above.
Watch out for the quick sudden crescendos that occur in one bar, make sure you play this as if you're singing it, not like a sudden massive increase of volume.

Beethoven piano sonatas guides

2011-03-04T14:56:00.000Z

As part of the Beethoven experience on the BBC website in 2005, Matthew Rye wrote a synopsis of each Beethoven sonata on the BBC Radio 3. It's a great way to get an overview and context of the sonata if you're studying them.

Let's take one of the sonata's I'm currently studying, Sonata in C Major, Op.2 #3. Here's a Youtube recording of Daniel Barenboim performing the first movement:

I knew the sonata was written in Beethoven's earlier period in Vienna, and logically the synopsis refers to the influence of the Vienese great composers Haydn and Mozart. The first movement according to the synopsis was an elaboration of a quartet (as exemplified by the 4 part texture in the opening) he wrote in Bonn in his youth? Wow! now that's illuminating as it gives you a perspective in how to approach the piece in study, practice and performance. Thank you BBC!

Additional BBC Radio 3 articles:

Beethoven: The Revolutionary - a 3 part essay.
Beethoven in Film

Also worth reading: DF Tovey on performing Beethoven’s piano sonatas

12 practical ideas for piano practice

2011-02-24T08:57:00.000Z

1) Practice slowly, with "emotional content"
Rachmaninoff advocated slow practice, so should you! I used to think practicing slowly was just a mechanical routine, and dreaded the shear tedium of it. Violinist Mansoon Bow advocates slow practice but with the same musical feeling as if you were playing normal speed. Remember also to practice in the correct rhythm, you may need to get out your metronome at a very slow speed.

Tiger Mother supervising piano practice of up to 2 hours a day

2) Aim for tension free practice
In the course of your practice or playing at normal speed, you feel tension, tightness in your forearm or hands, it's time to stop. Practice the passage that you had tension over again but this time slowly and in the most naturally relaxed way you can without compromising tone quality. You'll need to get creative and experiment with your movements until it feels so natural and relaxed. Also remember, it's not just your fingers, hands and arms that may have the tightness, it's also the shoulders, back and posture which might need alteration too. Suppleness in the wrist helps with pivoting and staccato. Listen to the difference in sound when you feel tense and when you are relaxed, it should be a much better sound!

3) Hands Separately - too often we're so eager to play a piece we play hands together at the detriment of our individual hands playing optimally. We also focus too much on our right hand and forget the supporting, yet equally important harmony progressions of the left hand. Again, practicing mechanically won't help, look for the harmonic progresssions and any countermelodies.

4) Voice by voice - also known as the SATB - soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices. Sometimes there are surprising yet delightful countermelodies and counterpart melodies to discover!

5) Dancing fingers/hands:
Much as we gesticulate and express emotions and thoughts with our arms and hands; on the piano, feel the mood of the piece in your fingers. If it's a lively piece, make your fingers dance, in other words
your fingers take on the character of the piece.

6) Bring out the direction of the melody - listen to a recording of the piece, and make sure
you understand where the emphasis is, and where the music is going to. Remember to arrive there and not get interrupted by lag or where a problematic technical area slows you down! Crescendos and decrescendos also create a flow, shape, and direction to the music.

7) Analytic Practice
Sometimes a piece may be so challenging you'll really have to break it down and perfect the smallest of atoms and work your way up to as you construct the piece with your hands.

8) Incremental Approach in a new challenging piece with a technical obstacle, don't get frustrated, 10 minutes a day on a problematic area will yield great results by the end of the week, you'll soon find you'll improve in no time!

Practice tips 9-12 form an analytic and incremental approach.

9) Note by Note - for very tricky passages, when there are lots of accidentals, unusual harmonies or quite thick chords, use this method. You'll need this approach if you are consistently playing a succession of wrong notes in a passage. This method helps you recognise each note and will compel you to think about what fingering you will use. Remember to use the most natural and efficient fingering possible.

10) Bar by Bar - set yourself a daily target to learn x many bars every day. It's quite a good way to see how far you are progressing, and before you know it, you're ready to join the bars into a musical phrase.

Schumann Carnival Characters

11) Characterisations - Phrase by Phrase - musical phrases are like speech, different characters making different statements and interjections, think of the dual characters in Schumann's music - Eusebius and Florestan, the inward and reflective character and the latter outgoing and boisterous. In the music of Beethoven there are masculine and feminine conversations occurring all the time, think of all the unrequited love and frustrations Beethoven experienced, as he fell in love with his female students of a much higher social class.

12) Section by Section - remember also to practice how you'll end one section and start another. Afteral, they are not separate pieces in their own right! In other words, make sure you join the dots!

Hopefully these practice tips will get you started if you feel stuck or require a fresh approach to practicing.
Feel free to comment and add your ideas to this blog!

"Nice Rach II" Rachmaninov's Secrets to Beautiful Piano Playing

2011-01-28T17:43:00.000Z

Rachmaninov's music is terribly technically difficult yet passionate (with a hint of depression?), enough to tip you over the edge as implied in the 1996 film Shine, where David Helfgott performs the 'monumental' Rachmaninov 3rd Piano Concerto. If only I could travel back 100 years in time ask Sergei personally, what the secrets are to great piano playing. No need, because an article in Etude Musical Magazine, written by Rachmaninov, in his capacity as supervisor of the leading Russian conservatoires in 1910. The article, now out of copyright, has been digitised on the Scriabin.com website. Without further ado, Rachmaninov's article: Ten Important Attributes Of Beautiful Pianoforte Playing. S.V. Rachmaninov I summarise these 10 attributes briefly.

Forming the proper conception of a piece - A conception of the work as a whole...Behind every composition is the architectual plan of the composer.
Technical Proficiency - which was of paramount importance aiming to be clean, fluent, distinct and elastic so that the pianist can adapt to the challenges of . The first five years of technical training in the conservatoires by doing Hanon excercises. He believed they would have practiced these excerises so often that they'd be able to play them by number. He also expected them to be able to change the tempo and key of the excercise at will! Rachamaninov recommends Henselt's Studies which he classed as beautiful as Chopin's etudes.
Proper Phrasing essential to artistic interpretation; Rachmaninov criticises phrasing in certain editions of piano works, therefore a strong grounding for the musician is important, and he gives the example of Bach's keyboards works where minimal phrasing is indicated but it was the skill of the musician of the time to execute them on the fly.
Regulating the Tempo the metronome is designed to set the time [pulse] and should only be used for this purpose. ...This little musical clock,... was never intended to stand like a ruler over every minute of the student's practice. time.
Character in Playing Seek variety constantly.
The Significance of the Pedal called the soul of the piano... and requires a study of a lifetime..to produce some very charming effects
The Danger of Convention It is infinitely better to create than to imitate.This notion criticises idiomatic approaches to playing a particular piece.
Real Musical Understanding rather than focusing on what background information inspired the piece (like a poem or artwork) one must understand what it is that gives the work unity, cohesion, force, or grace, and....know how to bring out these elements.
Playing to Educate the Public basically, the artist/pianist must perform so that the intentions and beauty of the composition is truly conveyed.
The Vital Spark the intense artistic interest of the player,... communicating to the audience ideas and musical tone pictures. (this was omitted from the article above)

Further Research
You'll also find some great articles and interviews from the Scriabin website from great pianists, contemporaries of Rachmaninov, such as the great Hans Von Bulow, Anton Rubinstein, and Leopold Godowsky. You can also find out what piano lessons were like with the great Franz Liszt, from first hand accounts of his students!

"Nice Rach" - Piano Legends: Benno Moiseiwitsch, CBE on Rachmaninov

2011-01-27T08:44:00.000Z

The Ukrainie has produced some great pianists - Horowitz, and without exception, one is pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch. Moiseiwitsch, once student of Leschetizky, according to Wikipedia: was particularly known for his interpretations of the late Romantic repertoire, especially the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff (who was an admirer of his playing and referred to Moiseiwitsch as his "spiritual heir"). At the piano, Moiseiwitsch was noted for his elegance, poetry, lyrical phrasing, brilliance, rhythmic freedom, and relaxed virtuosity. Moiseiwitsch met Rachmaninov in 1919 after performing in concert in Carnegie Hall.

The first is a video interview from the documentary "Art of the Piano" Benno discussing his initial meeting with Rachmaninov approving of his performance of his favourite piece - B Minor Prelude.

The second is a radio interview, from the Panorama show, on the theme: "Reminiscences of Rachmaninov", it is most likely recorded in the USA.

And part II. Some highlights:

Rachmaninov was an advocate of slow practice
His own technique had to be adapted, even employing exercises from Czerny when he became a concert pianist late in his life to prepare to play the works of Beethoven, Chopin, and Schumann.
Rachmaninov recorded his transcription on Mendelssohn: Scherzo from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' 14 times and wasn't satisfied with any of the recordings. Moiseiwitsch and the presenter argue it was the stress or pressure of recording the piece on deadline which affected the performance (hence how relaxation aids performance). Read Rachmaninov's thoughts on the whole recording process in his interview with Gramophone magazine in 1931.

To know more about Moiseiwitsch, behind the scenes, here's a transcript of another interview from what I assume are notes from his Arbiter Records recording label in 1959 (pre-cd days). It covers his outlook on life and reflections as a concert pianist. Here's a 1950 article "Playing in the Grand Style" with which he refers to playing in the grand style of Anton Rubinstein, Rachmaninov, and Paderewski.

Russian Piano School: Masterclasses downunder covering Rachmaninov, Chopin, Scriabin and more!

2010-12-24T11:35:00.000Z

Thanks to my friend Ian Bennett who recommended TheMusicPage website, which streams live and archived video content of musical performances. As well as recorded performances, I also came across some piano competitions as well as masterclasses. I find the following masterclasses fascinating as both of the piano masters are schooled in the Russian School of Piano, and give an insight into the Russian method which according to Stefan Kutrzeba in short emphasizes:

The artistic IMAGE-MAKING instead of looking for nuances...
The active INTONATING instead of playing by heart...

Both Masters, note, currently teach in Australian and American conservatories respectively.

The first masterclass, I came across was presided by Oleg Stepanov, who studied under Lev Vlassenko at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, won the Liszt International Competition in 1956 (Stepanov has dedicated a piano competition in his memory)
http://www.themusicpage.com/showVideos.php?v=2434

First is Chopin Ballade #1
(55 minutes) Scriabin Etude in D Sharp Minor
(83 minutes 18 seconds) Rachmaninov Moment Musicaux #4 in E minor

The second masterclass was run by Boris Berman, who had the same teacher that Vladimir Ashkenazy had, and also studied at the Moscow Conservatory.

http://www.themusicpage.com/showVideos.php?v=2427

Beethoven: Appasionata Sonata
Rachmaninov: Moment Musicaux #1, #2
Schubert - First Klavierstucke

The video player is slightly fiddly (smallish buttons) and the quality of the video so so, but the content's great!

All masterclasses were held at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Ian Hanger Recital Hall.

Entendre la différence! Hear the Difference! Active Listening (Aural Masterclass 1)

2010-12-06T13:00:00.000Z

Piano pedagogue Sylvia Yee recommends developing active listening. And I agree that
one should always strive to develop a finer ear, which will inevitably benefit your playing. Afteral, if you can't hear the difference in nuances, you will not be able to play the difference! So listen to the same piece performed by different pianists. And here is where active listening comes in.

For this explorative excercise, I've chosen the Beethoven Opus 13 in C Minor Pathetique Sonata - adagio cantabile performed by 3 different master pianists (Glenn Gould, Wilhelm Kempff, and Vladimir Horowitz).
You can either listen to a segment if you really want to focus on a piece (say 30 seconds) or the entire piece.

Glenn Gould

Stage 1 Listening
1) Listen generally without any preconceptions. Make notes of what you think about the music.
2) Listen to the melody line, usually in the soprano line
3) Listen to the bass
4) Compare the dynamics - loudness and softness of the piece. Also listen to crescendos and decrescendos. Does the performer build up to a climax effectively?
5) Character of the piece? What is the essential character of the piece. Is it one of playfulness or humour, or sadness and longing?

Stage II Listening

5) listen to the sensitivity or emotional content of the piece - is there a central theme to the feeling evoked in the piece?

6) What's the tempo like or pacing. Does the pianist employ rubato (ebb and flow) effectively?

7) Phrasing - listen to the musical phrases, just like musical sentences. How do they differ? Are they very legato or very short. Do the phrases connect to each other and transition to other phrases to evoke a cohesive

story? How are they different, what is the difference?

Wilhelm Kempff

Stage III Listening

8) Colour/Color - using harmony - or different chords create color, how the pianist brings out these textures creates mood or sound colour.

9) Context, now compare this piece to other similar pieces by the same composer or another composer. For example for Nocturnes, you could not only listen to other Chopin nocturnes, but also listen to John Field and Poulenc's nocturnes

10) Artistic license: What is the pianist doing to bring out his own unique style or playing into the music. Does it sound Glenn Gould, for instance, sound like he's playing Beethoven in the style of Bach?

Vladimir Horowitz

Youtube's Top 5 Piano Artistes

2010-12-03T10:30:00.000Z

In my piano journeys around Youtube, in search of inspiration, a performance as a starting reference to a piece I'm learning, or even merely for enjoyment. I come across, some great piano videos. The videos are quality in terms of playing, sound recording, video production and clarity and are active. So I'd like to share them with you below. They are listed in order of video upload views on Youtube. As a youtube pianist myself , I find their videos a source of inspiration and a standard to aspire to.

Valentina Lisitia (Chopin, Rachmaninov and many other composers)

http://www.youtube.com/user/ValentinaLisitsa
Video Index: her video uploads.

Video Views over 17 Million times!

Valentina is an Ukrainian Pianist based in the US. Here's one of her early videos performing La Campanella.

Cubus (Mozart, Chopin to French [Duvernoy] and Russian romantic period [Vladimir Rebikov*])

Video Views: 4.3 million
Video Index: http://www.youtube.com/user/cubusdk#g/u

I found Cubus' youtube channel when I was searching for the keywords "Chopin Playlist" in youtube. He plays well on his digital piano, but just Watch his luminescent hands! What a true piano artist in every sense! Enjoy.

*Who is Rebikov, I wondered....

“Rebikov was already a forgotten figure by the time of his death at age 54. He was bitter and disillusioned, convinced wrongly that composers such as Debussy, Scriabin, and Stravinsky had made their way into public prominence through stealing his ideas. Ironically Rebikov is best known by way of his insubstantial music in salon genres. Rebikov's role as an important early instigator of twentieth-century techniques deserves to be more widely recognized.” (Uncle Dave Lewis, Allmusic) [Source: Wikipedia]

Anderson & Roe Piano Duo (classical creative reinterpretations) from Star Wars, Piazolla, Saturday Night Fever.

Video Views: Over 3.2 million video views

Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/gnanderson

Bach Scholar
Video Views: 3 million
ragtime, classical, blues (Bach, Scarlatti, Scott Joplin, Czerny, and others). Also has some interesting video tutorials on how to play ragtime. It looks like he's also performed every Scott Joplin piece too!
Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BachScholar
Video Index: http://www.youtube.com/user/BachScholar#g/u

Tzvi Erez (Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach)
Video Views: 2.5 million
Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TzviErez
Video Index: http://www.youtube.com/user/TzviErez#g/u
I found Tzvi's Erez version of the Chopin Military Polonaise as a guide for when I was learning it for the Kemble Chopin Competition. Here, however is Tzvi playing a Satie piece.

Josh Wright Piano - Advice on piano technique from memorisation, phrasing, to getting that pearly sound.
Video Index: http://www.youtube.com/user/joshwrightpiano#g/u
Video Views: 7000

Let me know if you find any other quality Youtube Piano Artistes out there!

Piano virtuosity tapas? Kaleidoskop, and what a Kaleidoscope!

2010-12-02T15:09:00.000Z

Wow, I discovered this video recently performed by pianist Jennifer Lin in Monterey, California in 2004, and wasn't sure what the piece was -

It contained so many familiar elements, but seemed to change as if you were switching tv channels from one to the next, it wasn't until pianist Jennifer Lin at the end mentions that is Josef Hofman's Kaleidoskop, which happens to be opus 40, #4, which makes sense, it's a mixture of virtuosic works and perhaps favourites of Hofman.

If you can identify all the influences in the pieces do leave a comment!?

"Everyone can be moved" - Benjamin Zander on music and passion

2010-12-02T14:25:00.000Z

US based conductor, Benjamin Zander, a student of Benjamin Britten, illustrates music and passion, how classical music is for everyone, and that everyone can be moved by classical music. Benjamin uses an example of
Chopin's Prelude in E minor opus 28, no.4 [which starts at time index 7:00].

Andras Schiff Beethoven Sonata Lectures (podcasts)

2010-12-02T13:09:00.000Z

There are some great resources on the Internet if you can find them that is. In September 2008, Andras Schiff gave lectures on each of the Beethoven Sonatas at Wigmore Hall. You can download these podcasts as MP3s, or listen to them streamed through your web browser.

The lectures an essential resource for the grade 8 or pianist preparing for a performance diploma because they bring great insight into the character and context of each sonata, and also give ideas for interpretation and musical expression for each sonata.

These lectures are great to prove a point in interpretation, and a good starting point in your studies of Beethoven. And as a last resort, an ally if you're up against an examining board as was in my case last year. In my performance diploma exam, I contested a point made by an examiner on the Pathetique Sonata, which stated that the repeat in the first movement should go to the Allegro section (as is convention) and not to the grave (beginning section). So according to Schiff, this interpretation of repeating back to the grave gives the first movement a larger sense of scale and proportion which Schiff was inspired by the performance style of the great Rudolph Serkin (also Freddy Kempf advocates this interpretation too).

This point is raised in Andras Schiff's lecture, which I referred to with full reference to the Guardian newspaper website. My appeal was upheld affording me the professional dignity and confidence to write this blog today, sparing me any further condemnation of arduous repeats.

Inspiration from the Cat playing the piano!....Lang Lang did!

2010-11-29T14:29:00.000Z

I'm not talking about those funny cats playing the piano on Youtube. How do you engage young children to want to learn the piano? Communicate to them in a genre familiar to them, with characters they know well. In this instance, it's Tom and Jerry, and the short film is called "The Cat Concerto". As my children 2 year old calls it, "Cat playing the piano." It was so popular and acclaimed at the time that it won an Academy Award (Oscar) in 1946 for best short subject: cartoons. Lang Lang credits this cartoon for inspiring him to learn the piano starting at the tender age of 3.
Here it is, Tom plays Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2.

And the knock on effect? About 25-40 million people in China have been inspired to learn the piano, following in Lang Lang's footsteps according to the article "Yes, China's got talent – but that's not enough" from the Observer on 14 Nov 2010. Deservedly, Lang Lang was listed in 2009 Time Magazine's Top 100 Influential People in the World.

Dear Mozart...reading composers' private letters online

2010-11-26T11:33:00.000Z

The Gutenburg project puts free out of copyright books in a digital format available to view online or download as an ebook (to your kindle perhaps). Books range from the works of Jane Austin, the Bible, Sun Tzu's Art of War, to Machiavelli's The Prince.

It is indeed a fabulous resource for the music scholar and student. A look at the music bookshelf of the Gutenburg project reveals many composers letters that have been translated into English.

Mozart's Signature

The following letters are available from the following composers:

Beethoven
Franz Liszt
Mozart
Haydn

Tips for your research

Perhaps cross reference the year of the composition of the piece you are playing and look for any mentions of the piece by the composer himself.
If the composition was dedicated into someone in mind, are there mentions of that name?
What was he thinking at the time?
What major life events occur within the context of the piece in question?
Is there an insight into the personality of the composer?

This may help breathe some of his personality into your performance! Summon the presence of the composer in absentia.

8 creative ways to practice away from the piano keyboard (or any musical instrument)

2010-11-24T22:55:00.000Z

I'm a great proponent of living, breathing and inhabiting the music you are playing. If you are getting in a rut in your practice routine, perhaps you're trying too hard. It's time to recreate the music through other perspectives.

SEEK INSPIRATION
1. Listen to a master - find a recording of the great interpreters of your chosen piece/composer (Barenboim for Beethoven, Rubinstein for Chopin, etc.) and hear their recording. You can hear recordings on youtube, download for purchase, or even borrow it from your local library if they have it.
2. Watch a recording or live performance
Youtube is a treasure trove of recordings of the great pianists performing pieces you are probably studying.
3. Summon the composer - Watch a biopic, documentary or drama based on the composer. You'll find it brings to life the music if you understand more about the composer's life, as so much of the music reflects the personality and life events of the composer. Perhaps - has the piece itself been featured in a film - if so, what emotions does it depict in the film? Find out for instance, from the IMDB database which Chopin pieces featured in popular film.

INTERNALISE THE PIECE AND MAKE IT YOUR OWN
4. Make it your own: Hum/Sing the piece from memory. Robert Schumann says:

It is not only necessary that you should be able to play your pieces on the instrument, but you should also be able to hum the air without the piano. Strengthen your imagination so, that you may not only retain the melody of a composition, but even the harmony which belongs to it (Advice to Young Musicians, R.Schumann)

5. Visualise yourself playing the piece with your inner hearing
This is one of the best ways to make a piece more musical. You will probably start creating and formulating musical phrases you may have missed in your practice.
6. Make up words or phrases to accompany the music you are playing. Especially make up words that fit the mood of the piece.

THINK THEREFORE YOU ARE
7. Analyse the score
Look at the dynamics, think about how you are playing the piece, are there any details that you are missing? Are you being faithful to the score. Read all the markings, indications, etc. What are the passages that you have difficulty memorising and break down the section you find most difficult.

STRENGTHEN YOUR FINGERS
8. Finger practice on the piano foreboard or a table. You can strengthen your fingers and make sure you hand is not getting tense (with webbing of the hand)and that your finger joints don't collapse, also focus on a relaxed tapping of the fingers.

Free Sheet Music! Out of Copyright and in the Public Domain

2010-11-24T15:20:00.000Z

Who says you can't have something free in the age of austerity. Can't afford sheet music? Well no problem as a lot of it you can get for free! Just check out the Music International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) It's a great resource if you're away from your sheet music and need your score quickly to practice with. Granted, it might not be the exact arrangement you've bought already but it'll be close! As of 19 November 2010 it holds 78,000 scores. You can see for example - Elgar's Salut D'amour - piano solo version, piano and violin, piano and clarinet, and even the orchestral version too!
I recently performed the piece. I couldn't wait to get started so I used the free version from the website to practice with until I bought the Peters edition version..

Read about the International Music Score Library Project's history on wikipedia

Inspiring pianists: James Rhodes - Piano Man Trailer

2010-11-24T12:11:00.000Z

James Rhodes is on Sky Arts Channel (available to subscribing Sky viewers). The series is called Piano Man Here's a trailer below. James is an inspiration to me, he's about the same age, changed careers from finance to concert pianism with no formal academic training in music (meaning he didn't go to music conservatory) and not your typical concert pianist. Here James in the trailer discusses the French Suite #5 in G (by Bach)and how he sees it as a love letter.

Read more articles about James Rhodes:

James Rhodes: 'I hate the term "classical music"' (the guardian) 23/01/11
Piano's new superstars hit the wrong notes – and gloriously (the independent) 17/01/11

What's the Piano Sage about? Chapter 1: Bringing Music to Life

2010-11-23T12:34:00.000Z

This blog will give insights into the discovery process of musical discovery and learning.

Question to the sage? can you play this piece, what's it about?
This piece is about Zulu warriors - from looking at the left hand chords
C and G, which is repeated in 4/4 time, this is basically the drumming sounds.

Lesson learned: know the background of the piece! A big clue is the title. How often does a piano learner play a piece and they don't have the spirit, swing of the piece? Is this what differentiates an etude (or study) from a musical piece? Is this technical vs musical? Too often do we learn pieces in the early grades with Gavotte or Minuet and we forget these were once dances! Ask your student would you dance to it? Does it have a pulse and a strong first beat. Demonstrate demonstrate.

Live and learn the music!