Marguerite Long Mystery

[bluthnerboy]

Have you ever seen an English version of Marguerite Long's "Le Piano", a finger exercises book?

My Russian piano recommends to all her students to buy "Marguerite Long" exercises book called "Le Piano". Unfortunatley it's only available in the London shops in the French Version, publishers are "Salabert".

Has anyone out there everr seen an English edition by other publishers? Do you know where I might lay my hands on a copy?

I called Salabert in Paris to chat with the editors, and they've agreed to review my suggestion that they produce an English version. As you can expect this may take some time.

I've searched the internet and cannot find any leads........my search continues.....

Also, if you know where I can get a Russian version, I would love to buy this for a gift for my teacher as she really misse her lost childhood copy of the exercises she swears buy.

If you have any comments on Marguerite Long, let me know. I've been stdying Piano now for 2 years and loving every second of this new world.

Thanks for all your help/ comments in advance.

[pianistimo]

this sounds very interesting. i'd like a copy, too, if i could get my hands on it.  maybe thalbergmad will find a way?

i've been doing some looking and find the french guy bertini had some quite difficult exercises too (in the french tradition).

https://icking-music-archive.org/scores/bertini/Op106.pdf - curious similarity to faure's theme and variations (faure being a student of marguerite?)
https://icking-music-archive.org/scores/bertini/Op113.pdf

as far as i know, marguerite studied with debussy, so probably picked up some of his methods, though i don't know if the (exercises) are here:
le rudiments du pianiste

www.djupdal.org/karstein/debussy/method/m01.shtml  interesting what he says about sound and colors - that virtuosi sometimes bring out the melody (too much) in detriment to the harmony.  usually we try very hard not to worry about making the bass too loud, but maybe it's overcompensation.  so then, you have to listen to the comparative levels and tone them both closer to each other. 

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

Yes I also use the Marquerite Long techniques.

[pianistimo]

you have the book 'le piano?'  i've been looking all over.  i just found out that music professor eugene barban (with the help of his wife? french prof) has translated and edited 'le piano' into english.  he is a professor of music at winthrop uni (south carolina).  i am now going to www.winthrop.edu

dedan=to play into the piano



****just e-mailed prof. barban.  will update you as to any response!  don't know if he's published his book or not.  suppose we could look it up on amazon.com.

[chopinard]

not so interesting as you imagine.....
student from Paris.

[daniel patschan]

I have the book - in French. However, you might be surprised that she doesn't present something new which was created by herself. She went through the piano exercise literature and sampled all what she thought is beneficial (some stuff by Tausig, Brahms, Hanon, Philipp, Liszt, Czerny). This is the first of five parts of the book. Then she just lists all scales, arpeggios, double-note scales, octaves and chords in the keys. There is no special 'secret' she comes up with - in case you should look for something like that. 

[pianistimo]

interesting!  thanks chopinard and daniel.  i got the message i sent back saying 'message returned - no one at this address (or something like that)'  i sent it to ebarban@winthrop.edu.  guess that's not the address.  he is the only person i am aware of that was making or had made an english translation of her book here in the usa.  perhaps this is wrong and there are already copies in english? don't really know.

[bluthnerboy]

All,

I just got aff the phone with Eugene Barban. From the horses mouth he tells me that Salabert aer publishing his book in teh Autumn of this year. He's currently translating it and is going to produce an accompanying DVD/ CD Rom !

He and his wife are over here in the Autumn travelling and I hope to now meet up with them when they get here.

Thank you all for your comments, suggestions, and recommendations - truly apprecited!

If anyone's interested I can update you with a definitive date of publishing whenever I hear back.

[pianistimo]

glad to hear that he was a helpful name.  'google' is amazing. 

guess that exercise techniques from so many sources would be good.  I tend not to work as many exercises now, due to limited time, but i'm always interested in keeping my 'library' stocked for student interests.  from such a famous person as marguerite long, i'm sure i'd not turn down the chance to buy the english translation. 

[crazy for ivan moravec]

if you live near towson university, there's a filipino piano teacher by the name of Reynaldo Reyes who teaches there. he studied in paris conservatoire under marguerite Long. he witnessed idel Biret as a 14 year old studying and memorizing pieces in only a week to play for her lessons. reyes is about 70 years old already. he also studied at peabody, but i'm not sure where marguerite Long taught, probably paris.

last year, he gave a great performance of all alkan works, including comme le vent. whew!!!! at 70, gosh. actually, what's so great about him is he always sees to it to learn new works every year for a concert. i remember all prokofiev 2 years ago. he was a repititeur (spell?) at the met.

[sharon_f]

if you live near towson university, there's a filipino piano teacher by the name of Reynaldo Reyes who teaches there.

I remember Reynaldo Reyes from a summer camp I attended almost 40 years ago. At one of the faculty recitals he performed Liszt's Dante Sonata. I can still vividly remember his performance, all these many years later. It was the best Dante I've heard bar none (this includes recordings). He is an extraordinary pianist.

[crazy for ivan moravec]

wow, nice to know that.

in masterclasses, ask him to play anything for you and he will play it from memory. omg!!! he knows all "standard" pieces from memory.