{"id":10073,"date":"2019-12-11T15:43:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T15:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/?p=10073"},"modified":"2019-12-16T18:21:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T18:21:03","slug":"nelson-goerner-exploring-the-depths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/articles\/nelson-goerner-exploring-the-depths-10073\/","title":{"rendered":"Nelson Goerner – Exploring the depths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nelson Goerner is a sort of \u2018rare bird\u2019 on the concert platform. Each of his concerts is a unique experience. His most recent CDs featuring major works by Brahms, Godowsky and Paderewski are simply breathtaking. Eric Schoones met him in Groningen to discuss his recordings, his views on his artistry and about Maria Tipo, with whom he studied. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Goerner grew up in San Pedro, a small town near Buenos Aires. He was a prodigy who taught himself to read and write before he was three years old. When he was seventeen he played for Martha Argerich and, with her help, gained a scholarship in Europe. On her advice he went to Maria Tipo, by then already a legend, for further instruction. He won the Concours de Gen\u00e8ve and eventually even took over Maria Tipo\u2019s class at the Conservatoire de Musique de Gen\u00e8ve. At the invitation of Daniel Barenboim he recently also taught for two years at the Barenboim-Said-Akademie in Berlin. But Nelson Goerner\u2019s focus is primarily on giving concerts \u2013 much to the delight of his audiences.<\/p>\n

– Maria Tipo wasn\u2019t unknown in Argentina.
\n<\/em>– No, she was an icon, and played everywhere \u2013 not just in Buenos Aires. When I took my entrance exam in Geneva, I immediately felt that something incredible awaited me.<\/p>\n

– She was a very demanding teacher.
\n<\/em> – (laughs) Very much so; all of her students were reduced to tears at some point. She was enormously critical, also of herself, and was rarely satisfied with her playing. She really liked teaching, and never forgot an appointment. We spent a lot of time together, and she really took care of her pupils. After teaching for hours she would then go and practise herself. Generous as she was; she let me play one of her concerts because, despite winning the prestigious Geneva competition, I had very few opportunities to perform at first. My career was slow to get started. She knew it would take a while before I got a proper engagement in Italy, and that\u2019s why she let me take her place.<\/p>\n

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Nelson Goerner and Martha Argerich<\/p><\/div>\n

– Quite unlike the teachers who alienate their pupils from concerts.
\n<\/em>– Yes, I\u2019d like to stress that. She put in an appearance at the concert, and also made the arranger aware that she hadn\u2019t cancelled because she\u2019s received a better offer or because she wanted to be rid of it. It was a most unusual thing to do. I played Beethoven\u2019s \u2018Hammerklavier\u2019 Sonata. She was very exact about the structure, the context and the dynamic construction of the fugue. Above all it shouldn\u2019t sound like a stunt. She was a very natural pianist; just watching her play was a lesson in itself. She had an incredible legato, like a great singer, and her use of the pedal was quite extraordinary \u2013 all the critics wrote about it. She combined sonorities in a magical, very unorthodox way. \u2018You have to stroke the keys\u2019, as her mother Ersilia Cavallo always said, who had studied first with a pupil of Rubinstein and later under Busoni. Her sound was never hard or aggressive, the way you often hear today, and that\u2019s insufferable. Listen to her Scarlatti recordings, which made her famous at a stroke in 1955. So refined \u2013 they\u2019re really dances, and she doesn\u2019t imitate the harpsichord, but uses all the potential of the piano, with taste, character and imagination. Every sonata has its own character.<\/p>\n

– When I listened in on your rehearsals yesterday, I was struck by the way you work with sound relationships within a chord, between melody, bass and middle parts.
\n<\/em>– Yes, it\u2019s hard to make a chord sing; the balance between the various voices is so important; you train your fingers, but you train your ears even more. Ultimately you can achieve unbelievable things even on a mediocre piano, and I try to develop this sensitivity to sonority in my pupils as well.<\/p>\n

– Your most recent CD include music by Paderewski, Godowsky and Brahms. Can you discern the pianist behind the composer? <\/em>
\n– Always, and especially in the case of pianists like Godowsky who had such an all-encompassing technique. Paderewski was a fabulous pianist as well. His recording of his own Nocturne, Op. 16 No. 4 \u2013 which I have recorded too \u2013 is incredible, but I also admire La leggierezza<\/em> by Liszt and the F minor Variations by Haydn greatly. Likewise, for instance, Grieg\u2019s Ballade and Chopin\u2019s \u00c9tudes played by Godowsky.<\/p>\n

– You say that Godowsky was always nervous at recordings.
\n<\/em>– Yes, unfortunately there aren\u2019t any recordings of him in large-scale works, but that applies to many artists. I never heard Arthur Rubinstein in person, but some of his live recordings give an idea of what he sounded like in real life, and I find this immediacy slightly lacking in his studio recordings.<\/p>\n

– Therefore the recently discovered recording by Rachmaninov is also so stunning.<\/em>
\n– Exactly, he wasn\u2019t aware that he was being recorded. The idea that something was being set down for all eternity made him nervous too. But a recording is just a snapshot in your development.<\/p>\n

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\u2018I\u2019ve already been living with Brahms\u2019s
\nThird Sonata for 25 years.\u2019<\/em><\/h2>\n

– Is that why you perform the programme of your CDs in concert first?
\n<\/em>– Absolutely, it\u2019s essential \u2013 not the other way around in order to sell more CDs! A CD is the result of a long process of study, searching for the meaning of every note \u2013 a process that continues in concerts too \u2013 where, if you feel at ease on stage, you find out a lot that doesn\u2019t become apparent when practising at home. It\u2019s the only way. I\u2019ve already been living with Brahms\u2019s Third Sonata for 25 years \u2013 half my life. It\u2019s such an incredible piece; it contains everything \u2013 power, drama, youthful optimism. Brahms was still young, but already in possession of all his faculties. Moreover it\u2019s also very original for its time.<\/p>\n

– And still \u2013 not every recording is the result of such a long process.
\n<\/em>– No; I played Paderewski\u2019s Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme <\/em>at the request of the Chopin Institute, where I\u2019m a member of the advisory board, and it was love at first sight. I love playing Paderewski\u2019s Piano Concerto, but the Variations are more profound, in a certain sense enigmatic, psychologically very multi-faceted, and the fugue is grandiose. People see Paderewski as a miniaturist, but this is something wholly different. I hope that in a modest way I can contribute to the fame of these Variations.\u2019<\/p>\n

– And the feeling of freedom during a concert? <\/em>
\n– Yes, I try to achieve that in the studio too, but it\u2019s very difficult, because at a concert you\u2019re sharing the music with hundreds of people. That\u2019s a very special feeling. For that reason I make as many live recordings as possible. In the studio you\u2019re searching more for an ideal.<\/p>\n

– Is there such a thing?<\/em>
\n– At a specific moment, yes, but the concept keeps on developing, and that\u2019s why I don\u2019t like listening to my own recordings.<\/p>\n

– At the rehearsal yesterday I noticed how a single note can clarify the structure of a piece, so that unexpected dimensions arise.
\n<\/em>– I learned that from the great pianists such as Josef Hofmann and Ignaz Friedman<\/em>. They reveal the psychological content of the music in such an immediately recognizable way, without losing their personalities and without placing their own egos in the foreground. Just recently I heard Josef Hofmann in Chopin\u2019s Fourth Ballade. So extreme, individual and overwhelming, with a demonic power, intense lyricism, and completely in Chopin\u2019s spirit. His pupil Shura Cherkassky was recently a role model for me in this respect.<\/p>\n

– Many would regard it as a gamble to play Brahms\u2019s Paganini Variations in concert.<\/em>
\n– (laughs) And so it is. They\u2019re notoriously difficult, but their virtuosity is not that of Liszt, who was also a performer in the best sense of the word. He makes some concessions to the taste of his time, when the piano gained its place as the king of instruments. I am totally against the view \u2013 often still encountered today \u2013 that Liszt was superficial; but unfortunately many pianists still go for superficial virtuosity.<\/p>\n

– The same is actually true of Rachmaninov. <\/em>
\n– You shouldn\u2019t play the Third Concerto like a big show. Listen to Rachmaninov himself; he has so much grandeur, and it\u2019s so noble, so rich and also so emotional. He never displays his technique for its own sake. It\u2019s impossible to deny the truth of this role model.<\/p>\n

– You have no time for great extravagance.<\/em>
\n– I have learned to avoid it completely \u2013 a very important point, because it keeps you away from the real meaning of the music. You can see with the really great pianists: they don\u2019t try to seduce the audience with grand gestures, for example. If you do that, you\u2019re more concerned with yourself, and less with the music. Consciously or unconsciously \u2013 both are bad. I also see it as one of my duties as a teacher to make genuine talents aware of this. You must approach the music from within, I don\u2019t decide anything from the externals. It remains an eternal quest \u2013 otherwise you just turn into a copy of yourself.<\/p>\n

Recent Albums<\/h2>\n

Brahms: Sonata, Op. 5; Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 39. Alpha Classics 557<\/p>\n

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Paderewski: Variations and Fugue; Godowsky: K\u00fcnstlerleben. Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, NIFCCD 061<\/p>\n