Pianists that make playing look easy

[will]

https://www.artofpracticing.com/video.html
This video is of Madeline Bruser playing some of the Chopin Fantasie Impromptu.
Seeing it I was struck by how easy she makes her playing look.
She looks very relaxed - almost like she is about to fall asleep.

What other pianists (famous or not) strike you as demonstrating this level of ease in their playing?

[rohansahai]

Monsieur Hamelin

[dnephi]

In the video he missed some massive jumps ... but anyways, Langx2 looks really relaxed at times.

[canardroti]

I second that Hamelin makes all those Godowsky studies look simple.

[berceuse]

I would have to say Francesco Libetta. I don't think I've ever seen him grimace.

[will]

I would have to say Francesco Libetta. I don't think I've ever seen him grimace.

You'd better not look too closely at his videos on YouTube then. 

[berceuse]

You'd better not look too closely at his videos on YouTube then. 

I have that dvd and the only time he grimaces is during the ligeti (i assume that is the video you are talking about) but other than that..... Also, speaking of Chopin/Godowsky, libetta looks as if he could play it in his sleep.

[pabst]

god lord does she make the piece sound boring...

[wishful thinker]

Agreed !    Someone should take that piano away from here at once ...... and give it so a poor deserving soul....like me 

[Waldszenen]

Cziffra makes the most furious passages look easy.


Arrau and Argerich probably make them look more difficult than they are (their wrists and fingers stretch and tense awkwardly)

[lisztianick]

Cziffra makes the most furious passages look easy.

COME ON.... Cziffra is so furious in his playing. He is the last one you can say that to him. For easiness, we are talking Rubinstein, Argerich ............ errrm *hi koji*.

[Waldszenen]

COME ON.... Cziffra is so furious in his playing.

And he makes it look easy. -_-

[maxy]

already listed:

Hamelin, Libetta

I would also add Bolet, Ohlsson.

[kaiwin]

Ms. Bruser graduated from the Juilliard School in 1970 and attended Vajradhatu Buddhist Seminary in 1983, under the direction of Tibetan meditation master and artist Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She has studied meditation and its relationship to artistic and educational processes since 1977 and is an authorized meditation instructor in the Buddhist and Shambhala traditions. She is also a teacher of Shambhala Training, a secular approach to meditation practice.

Cool! That means she has enlightened playing!!! 

[lau]

sometimes i make something look a little harder to make people more impressed

[ramseytheii]

Monsieur Hamelin

Hamelin definitely makes playing look easy, even when he hits the wrong notes.  He even commented on that in the book "Hamelin and the Eight," by Robert Rimm.  He said it was a curse for him, because critics pounce on that fact to say that there is no tension in his playing, since everything is too easy for him.

First of all I don't like this book, because every time a criticism of Hamelin is introduced, we are told that the critic doesn't "understand" his aesthetic.

I personally think that a lot of music is too easy for Hamelin.  I have never heard more boring Beethoven sonatas than from him, and also technically more demanding pieces like the Dante sonata.  I seriously should have brought a pillow to those concerts.
But his problem doesn't stem from looking relaxed.  Rachmaninoff was also famous for appearing to exert zero effort on stage, and just look at Horowitz, most of the time he only moves his lip.  The problem with Hamelin is that there is no inner tension.  He is so far distanced from the music, that one only hears the exterior elements: all the notes exactly as written, a clear narrative through the structure.  Unfortunately there is zero tension; each piece he plays seems to be able to do only one thing.  I find no surprises in his playing, and ntohing to get excited about.  Ok, he plays the Godowsky etudes with such a clarity.  But Berezovsky has all the clarity, and on top of that artistic fire.  I don't feel Hamelin is excited with the music he plays, or that he lets it affect his passions.

As far as performing is concerned, there can be benefits to the music "looking hard": the audience will be more prepared to aprpeciate the effort.   A lot of those who are more talented at the showy aspects are making music look hard, without it actually feeling terribly more difficult to play.  It is more for outward show, and that can be very useful.  Pianists like Rachmaninoff rejected all of that (Stravinsky said Rachmaninoff was his favorite pianist because he "never grimaced,") but many are good at it.  If you have ever seen a pianist, when executing a fast scale or repeated notes, bend towards the keyboard and put their nose an inch away from their fingers, they are trying to effect "difficulty."

That being said, you should strive to make everything as easy to play as you can, without changing the essential inner tension of every piece.  THen decide how you want to look.

Walter Ramsey

[donjuan]

lau and I had a conversation about this here:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,3913.msg219628.html#msg219628

I prefer if my exam results slightly suck. Then my parents won't expect as much from me, i won't have to work as hard, that analogy i made was perfect..don't deny.

now we mustnt play too well; wouldnt want the audience to expect too much from us..





I'm such an ass! 

[shasta]

Alicia de Larrocha

For her amazing color and rhythms and life that she brings to the piano. 

Hamelin (whom I love) plays the piano and it sounds like a piano - - - de Larrocha transforms the piano into a guitar, maracas, zapateado, tambourine...  she makes it look so easy.

[gyzzzmo]

I gues some people just move alot more while playing and tend to put their faces into very strange positions. A piece looks much harder when you do this 
But when you hear them playing on a cd and compare those people with musicians who dont have that tendancy, you'll notice it'll sound the same 

gyzzzmo


PS. I hardly move while playing.

[dnephi]

I grimace when I play hard pieces  .  People say that I look very angry. 

Daniel   

[arbisley]

I'm trying to train myself to look as if it's relatively easy, but more of reassuring myself than anything else. Then not to grimace in hard passages, and otherwise just look as if I'm directly inspired by the composer of the piece!

[daniel patschan]

The problem with Hamelin is that there is no inner tension or passion - and there never was or will be. Itīs maybe a prerequesite for being able to play so effortless. If there wolud be some inner pain involved, some suffering about individual messages in different pieces (as it can be heard immediately in Horowitzīs playing) then he propably couldnīt play such a big repertoire without any FORMAL MISTAKE. God gave him the perfect neuro-motorical apparatus to execute various combinations of notes at incredible speed, and thatīs it !

[ramseytheii]

The problem with Hamelin is that there is no inner tension or passion - and there never was or will be. Itīs maybe a prerequesite for being able to play so effortless. If there wolud be some inner pain involved, some suffering about individual messages in different pieces (as it can be heard immediately in Horowitzīs playing) then he propably couldnīt play such a big repertoire without any FORMAL MISTAKE. God gave him the perfect neuro-motorical apparatus to execute various combinations of notes at incredible speed, and thatīs it !

I agree with your first point about Hamelin, but still there are tremendous pianists who touch the people, who rarely make mistakes.  Zimerman comes to mind immediately; also Berezovsky, though not everyone seems so enthusiastic about his musical message.  Also Rachmaninoff; in his advanced age he wrote I think to Medtner that he had a memory lapse in a concert, and that it was the "first time that ever happened."  (!)  There are many in fact. 

Walter Ramsey

[anschlag]

I agree that it should be possible to convey that inner tension even without making errors.

Also, sometimes virtuousic writing requires a sense of struggle with the instrument and a sense of the risk that the performance may unravel. A pianist whose mastery of the instrument is so complete surely needs to be able to project that.

[daniel patschan]

To make it absolutely clear: i am very far from being a fan of Hamelin. I just backed up all MP-3 of his and threw him from my computer. Itīs always annoying to listen to him. I personally also find the Berezovsky recording much more musical and intense.

[ramseytheii]

To make it absolutely clear: i am very far from being a fan of Hamelin. I just backed up all MP-3 of his and threw him from my computer. Itīs always annoying to listen to him. I personally also find the Berezovsky recording much more musical and intense.

Well Daniel Patschan, I don't think you are zealous as you say.  If you were really annoyed and an enemy rather than a fan of Hamelin, you would never, never have backed up his MP3 files!!
 
 
Walter Ramsey

[daniel patschan]

Well Daniel Patschan, I don't think you are zealous as you say.  If you were really annoyed and an enemy rather than a fan of Hamelin, you would never, never have backed up his MP3 files!!

Oh i have a lot of recordings from different pianists but i keep only a minority on my actual computer - only the ones i am really interested in at the moment. I lost interest in Hamelinīs interpretations. Who knows, maybe one day iīll be interested again. Why would i delete any file ? These are at least documents worth to be collected in an organized manner. The same i could say about several recordings of Richter (almost anything except the Schumann Toccata and Schubert 960), Zimerman (i donīt particularly like his chopinesque Schubert or the newest Brahms recording - the one with S. Rattle) - but i would never delete those files forever. Who am i to do that ?

[brahms_schumann]

Boris Berezovsky!!!

you can be sure if you see his Chopin-Godowsky etudes  on www.youtube.com 

[rach n bach]

I can't belive that you guys have only mention Horwitz once!!!   

This is the pianist who had fingers of steel covered with velvet and a face of stone!  (ok, overstatement, but you get the idea...)  Only later on, i.e. moscow, did he begin to look as if he was really trying in some things like Scribians d sharp minor, but come on, he was one old guy!  Still, he is much calmer and sublime on the outside than say, lang-lang, but has all this tention in his back, arms, and fingers.  Just my two cents....

RnB

[zheer]

  Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, had such an effortless style that many fail to notice his amazing command of the piano.

[el nino]

lang lang

[etudes]

Lang Lang,Berezovsky,Hamelin,Cziffra,Bolet,ABM,Meiting Sun,Koji,Libetta,Freire,Ashkenazy,Pollini,Ingolf WUNDER

[jericho]

  Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, had such an effortless style that many fail to notice his amazing command of the piano.

I agree. Many people mention only his accuracy, but Michelangeli is more than that. He has supreme control of tone and volume as well. Incredible evenness and clarity.

[nasalstein]

I can't belive that you guys have only mention Horwitz once!!!  ..... Still, he is much calmer and sublime on the outside than say, lang-lang, but has all this tention in his back, arms, and fingers.  Just my two cents....RnB

agree!!!  with both hands up!!!