Pianophilia

Dear Ferruccio,

as teachers and as pianists/performers we all have the same goal:

playing music well.

But as we all have different musical experiences, we all have a different musical taste.
And that is the only point were we might disagree.

Regarding technique and Etude playing:
You may know that you have to play scales when applying for studying at the Paris Conservatory!

We surely agree that the almost incredible „Geläufigkeit“ of many pianists of the past may sometimes be a disadvantage in musical terms.
So one the most excellent British pianists, Kathleen Long, plays an excellent Faure, but her recording
of Schubert's Sonata op. 120 displays a „Geläufigkeit“ which makes you think its is a piece by Haydn.
Or take the super-pianist Godowsky. His recording of Chopin's Nocturnes is utterly disappointing, while his recordings of Beeth. Les Adieux, Schumann Carnaval and Grieg Ballade are quite good.

...(to end a never-ernding discussion)...

All best

alfor

Ferruccio wrote:By the way: This Clementi-Tausig study is quite nice! But I definitely would stumble!

I confess to not being aware that Tausig did any etudes based on Clementi. Can you point me in the right direction?

Clementi's 100 Studies and Exercises, Gradus ad Parnassum Op44,
are available at IMSLP.
29 of them were edited by Tausig, and these are also available at IMSLP.
Btw, I like to think of Clementi as English, despite his Op44.

fleubis wrote:

Ferruccio wrote:By the way: This Clementi-Tausig study is quite nice! But I definitely would stumble!

I confess to not being aware that Tausig did any etudes based on Clementi. Can you point me in the right direction?

Yes, Timtin, Tausig simply selected 29 studies and provided some additional fingering
(he omitted all slow and polyphonic pieces).
Clementi-Tausig was a must for generations of pianists -
for example Benedetti-Michelangeli, whose pupils (like Argerich) had to study all 29 pieces.

Tausig's own studies (edited by Heinrich Ehrlich) are more or less old-school,
reminding of his master's (Liszt's) Klavierübungen.

BTW Brahm's 51 Übungen were composed in close cooperation with his friend Tausig.

P.S. Does anybody know Istvan Thoman's Technik des Klavierspiels?

Timtin wrote:Clement's 100 Studies and Exercises, Gradus ad Parnassum Op44,
are available at IMSLP.
29 of them were edited by Tausig, and these are also available at IMSLP.

Found them! Tausig certainly does add some challenging fingerings.....I'm stumbling my way through the variants of the first two now.

Happy New Year to all PP members!

Found this (I think Conus trancribed Scriabin's „Ecstatic Poem“ for piano solo).

If there is a single PP member who may have the need to polish up his technique,
this volume is surely to be recommended!
...But probably we all are now constructing our own individual exercises...
reminds me of Busoni: Once a visitor came to his flat and heard him playing. „What an extraordinary new composition“, the visitor said to his wife Gerda. „No, he is just practicing scales“, she replied.

Thank you Alfred, The Conus book is full of challenges. These are pretty advanced and welcome tools for polishing up ones technique. Guess I am one of the very people out there who have no interest in creating my own exercises--probably because I don't teach, so with exercises like this I can approach with great enthusiasm.

Thanks for this great find

Must be a true rarity... :

http://www.ebay.de/itm/NOTENBUCH-J-S-Ba ... SwJkJWjot2

alfor wrote:Must be a true rarity... :

http://www.ebay.de/itm/NOTENBUCH-J-S-Ba ... SwJkJWjot2

Of course my favorite version has the fugue voices color coded.

fleubis wrote:

alfor wrote:Must be a true rarity... :

http://www.ebay.de/itm/NOTENBUCH-J-S-Ba ... SwJkJWjot2

Of course my favorite version has the fugue voices color coded.

I was referring to:

„Das wohltemporierte Klavier“
(tempo = speed)