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Posted by Romy the Cat on
07-01-2004
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I would like to pitch a quite interesting pianist Juana Zayas. She is kind of Cuban and she is kind of she… (another brick in the wall to the conversation about the female pianists) I have her Chopin’s Preludes and Etudes and it is quite interesting… and least to she what she is trying to do…
I do not know… it is my permanent song that ALL contemporary pianists play with the rubber finders and boolean-like pianos: Juana Zayas is not an exception but still, for a contemporary player she is very good and she well deserves to be in a quite noble place in your Chopin collection. Surprisingly the recording is not bad as well.
http://www.juanazayas.com/Recordings.aspx
Rgs,
The Cat
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Posted by Michaelz on
03-02-2007
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Care to explain "rubber finger?"?
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
03-02-2007
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 Michaelz wrote: | | Care to explain "rubber finger?"? |
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Michaelz, sure I will. However, would you please use some identifiable titles for your posts? The reasons I ask because many people, including me, monitor the new posts within this site from the front page, where the only tittles printed and if you do not have an identifiable title then is not convenient.
The “rubber fingers”… Try to play piano hitting the keys by hot dog sausages, holding the sausages by their end. Sure you will be able to play but the minute dynamic inflations that you would like to inject into your play will be absorbed by the hot dog flexibility and elasticity. Eventually you will use to play via sausages but it will not be a direct connection between your interpretive consciousnesses and piano as it always will be some soft of rubber proxy between you and the instrument that will damp your intentions.
Most of the today pianists do have wonderful techniques but they play with sausages or with “the rubber fingers”. If you look what “better pianists” did that you will hear how much complexity and thoughts might be in the event of hitting a piano key… Listen Benedetto Michelangeli, Josef Lhevinne, Alfred Cortot, Edwin Fischer or Josef Hoffman for instance. The Hoffman’s “hit the key” (particularly his early recordings) are completely against all rules of physics….
Rgs,
The caT
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Posted by Michaelz on
03-02-2007
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I spent more time thinking of a title than typing the post. But I'll try to abide to the requirement.
I agree with your observation of the tone produced by most of today's pianists. I only disagree with the reason behind it. I think they concentrated too much on where the pianist meets the keyboard, namely the fingers and use only the muscle in the forearm that move the fingers. I bet if you try to hold a salami by one end loosely you can produce a sound that's more 3 dimensional more tasteful than today's average painist.
I am a big fan of Hofmann. I totally agree with what you said about his touch.
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Posted by Michaelz on
03-05-2007
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Such a natural, flexible being one with the piano way of handling the keyboard. I am stunned!
That aside, I have to say that Nora can really give a lesson or two to a lot of hand injury suffering pianists.
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
03-05-2007
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Yesterday the WHRB broadcasted the Rachmaninoff’ conducting from 30s and 40s and they end up the programs with the celebrated 1939 Ormandy/Philadelphia performances of Rachmaninoff’ Third Concerto As many times I heard Rachmaninoff’ played the peace it always the last movement that make Rachmaninoff’ own play way beyond anybody else playing this concert.
There is practically nothing “going on” in the mid of the third movement. I know perhaps over a hundred different interpretations of the work and all of pianist plays the middle of the last movement as like “nothing is happening “in there. They are crashing thought the notes, and although the music is wonderful but it has little particular meaning on context of the pieces. With Rachmaninoff’ at piano it all suddenly makes since. The notes and phrases become waves of energy that Rachmaninoff’ (and Philadelphia SO) actually USE for something more then juts sound creations…. So, talking about that “little touch”… the way in winch Rachmaninoff’ does his touch is “different”. I’m not big fun of Rachmaninoff’ play his own second movement but in the mid of the last movement he stuffs his phrases with some very odd hallucinogenic eminence. It is not about the way how hit his key but about some very fine pattern in witch the notes come together. These expressed meanings of transition between the notes in context of the entire work make the mid of the last movements of the Third Concerto so different…. Sure, no one make them anymore able to play like this…
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Posted by Michaelz on
03-05-2007
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Interesting. Will give a listen to the CD to find out.
BTW, I find that an audio person with this kind of understanding is a very rare thing. I think that's what attracts to this site.
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Posted by Michaelz on
05-29-2007
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I first saw this warming up footage on youtube. It is very impressive. I wonder how today's pianists do their warm up. I used to have a Cziffra DVD. It was broken by my baby trying to take it out of the dvd case. In this dvd Cziffra had very warm, full and sweet tone playing some Chopin and Liszt. I wonder if it was the playing style or the recording technique, many pianists had good sound in their recordings before the 70s. Later on , their sound became more or less more thin and metallique.
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
10-17-2009
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fiogf49gjkf0d | Michaelz wrote: | Such a natural, flexible being one with the piano way of handling the keyboard. I am stunned!
That aside, I have to say that Nora can really give a lesson or two to a lot of hand injury suffering pianists. |
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