But generally, I don't find watching musicians helps much, unless they are the very best.
Yes.
There was a documentary on BBC 4, after the Song guy [who probably doesn't stand a chance, not because he picked a piece that's too short and hammered away a little bit harshly IMHO, but because every time anyone says "Song was playing" the rest of the thread will be "OH FFS IT IS PIECE! PIECE! PIECE! NOT SONG!" A bit of a PR disaster in the piano world having a name that's the no no word
]
Anyway, this documentary had a buffoon and was really dumbed down. The premise seemed to be this guy learning to play a difficult piece whilst meeting a bunch of people who love piano. He had Hamelin and a woman that does some kind of relaxation / performance thing on the same show, and he might as well have been a blue peter presenter for what he asked / discussed with them.
As well as evidently not knowing the difference between rock music and Blur [and also clearly being completely ignorant of a fair number of rock musicians who, although they might not be Hamelin, can certainly play piano to a standard as good as a number of the people he was happy to stick on TV, like himself, and despite his prejudice they have an interest and knowledge of playing classical music on piano too] Oh well, at least he didn't get Paul McCartney, he gets one point for that.
It didn't need to be high brow or anything [Hamelin seemed refreshingly down to earth for that anyway, especially compared with the appalling presenters and 'experts' for the competition concertos - does that ginger girl have the power of speech?] but it could have been far more informative.
That said, I thought the bits with Hamelin playing "This is one of the earliest pieces I learnt....in E major" and the other bits and pieces around that skill level were educational, perhaps far more so than his flash mind-boggling stuff. If for nothing else seeing how much better he was, even when playing something that perhaps everyone on the program could have played to some level. I think I learnt more from watching him play that than I have from watching anything else being played.
But the guy ruined it, because rather than focussing on what the women was trying to tell him about relaxing, and looking at Hamelin in detail to see why he's playing better [as well as considering that brain scan element] he rejected what they were telling him, or did silly willy waving comparisons with himself "How big is your stretch Hamelin?"
He told the women he was a cynic and later ridiculed her [with a bit of help from Jules Holland although it was largely because he'd forgotten what she'd told him to do that they made a joke of it]
He talked to Hamelin about the size of his hands and the fact he thought they looked like they were made of rubber rather than any of the plethora of things he could have asked that were relevant [and at least partly visible] to explain his control and performance of the piano compared with us mortals. No it's "Tell us about your big rubbery hands please Mr Hamelin." Thanks Mr BBC
His amazement at how Hamelin could play the Godowsky Chopin Etude and he couldn't looked foolish when he didn't consider [in detail - and by getting the answer right] how Hamelin could play an easy E major piece, which in the sense that Hamelin could play it, the presenter couldn't either. No, we're left with "Genius" and "big rubbery hands" as the reason for Hamelin's ability. Even if he is a genius some of what he played should be within the ability of most people, and the reasons why he played that easier rep so well could have been explored far better IMO.
The fact he considered himself qualified enough to be a piano teacher made me smile.
That wanna-play attitude went to the presenter's derision of rock piano too. It seemed the presenter was happily elite because he tried and couldn't play classical piano, and believed that the mere attempt and interest in those pieces set him apart from other pianists.
Yet he clearly couldn't play the easier and [as he considered] more mundane rock, boogie woogie or classical pieces either. His attempt at satire and ridicule of rock piano would have been funnier had he played it well. Extras on BBC 2 last week did the funny rock song much better - a song that would fit this presenter
It was a program that had all the right ingredients to be great, the right pianists to interview [mostly, I think they could have gotten a better rock example], the trip to the hospital to look at how the brain of a pianist works etc, yet all the detail seemed missing and the whole thing seemed watered down by the presenter's ignorance of the subject and disinterest in actual presenting the good things he had to show if he'd wanted to.
Although the program was interesting to watch, I ultimately felt annoyed that the BBC was paying this buffoon to make the program and as a result he was getting the opportunity to meet these people. An opportunity that was so clearly wasted on the guy.
Topic: Piano Season on BBC 4!!!