Wonderful questions! I know this is intended for the masterclass usage, but I thought I could give some information which may be helpful or at least interesting.
2. Pianists talk about using a "pushing finger" or "pulling finger." I've heard Veda Kaplinski advocates the pushing finger, at least much of the time. I almost exclusively push, yet someone like my friend Elizabeth Schumann almost exclusively pulls. What do you think about the issue?
Both should be thought of as types of touch, and neither is exclusive. One time I heard Mitsuko Uchida speak, and she made the pushing motion, saying, we often hear to play by pulling out, but you play
just as often pushing in.
While the two touches have varying uses, it's useful to think of them in places which might be described as typical: in the last movement of Beethoven's op.111, in the long melodies in nontuplets in the high register, the "pulling" touch, or as I like to call it, "stroking the cat," others call it "dusting the piano," (in fact that was how Beethoven's touch was referred to) is necessary for the right atmospheric sound. In the first movement,
Maestoso, the "pushing" touch, or as I like to call it, "perpetual motion," (because the energy that goes forward is rebounded and starts again, like tetherball) is necessary for all the chords to avoid heaviness and to control the dynamic, especially in the
diminuendi.I think in general, piano playing is never totally vertical, or totally horizontal: when you move horizontally, you really move in arcs; when you have to play "vertically," you also play in arcs, but from forward to back.
Although these are highly specialised forms of touch, children can learn them from early on, particularly in
staccato playing.
3. Olga Radosavljevich at the Cleveland Institute got an excellent tone quality from her students by talking about a technique called "playing up." She refused to tell me about it, claiming it was her secret. I saw it mentioned in a book once, though. Do you know anything about it?
I think there is never one answer to tone quality, and if she gets results from a personal method, they are nothing that noone else can get as well. Actually, I've heard some of her students and it seems to me they play very choppily, and without refined melodic line? But not as extensive contact as you must have had.
I suspect her words may have something to do with following-through on the sound; tone-quality is immediately improved when pianist stops playing vertically, up-down up-down, and starts playing 3-dimensionally. This allows for concentration of energy; refinement of touch in longer phrases; and air into the rhythm.
Martha Argerich in an interview describes the experience of playing piano as playing from below the keys, upward. It's never an image that worked for me, but maybe you will find it interesting.
4. Among advanced pianists, moving the fingers is often not a problem; sound quality tends to be the problem. I struggle with a "heavy" sound. How do I lighten it? Another friend of mine has rather weak fingers and his tones don't have much of a "center." What can one do to achieve good sound?
For me, the essence of good sound comes from polyphonic playing, and those who agree include Neuhaus, Godowsky, and Cherkassky. By polyphonic playing, I don't mean just Bach fugues, but I mean approaching every piece of music from the standpoint as achieving the maximum variety of sound. As soon as we pay the closest attention not to quality
in general but the quality of
varying sonority, the sound quality improves.
Take a look for instance at one difficult example, the second movement of Beethoven op.31 no.2 . An extraordinary refinement is required to achieve the balance between the registers, because he composed this piece according to the individual sonority of the registers. The LH often has chords that span an octave; for instance, F - E
b-G
b, that have to sound polyphonically: the low F is one register, one instrument, and the upper third is another.
I approach all music like this, without exception, even such seemingly uncomplicated pieces as Chopin op.10 no.1 and op.25 no.12. Sound quality does not come from a general treatment of the piano, but from work on diversity of sound. In other words, there is no unspecific sound quality, and it is all relative to what is heard around it.
5. Burning question: So many recordings of Beethoven and Schuberg (Murray Perahia, Richard Goode, Artur Schnabel) have such variable rhythms. Things speed up and slow down all over the place, yet it sounds good. How does one deal with rhythm and tempo in these cases?
I remember an interview with Barenboim where he claimed that because of the dissolution of the "traditional" tonal harmony, students now play more mechanically because they don't feel naturally the tension between chords. I think this is slightly ridiculous, because traditional harmony is taught much more thoroughly in conservatories than modern techniques, and also because popular music, which is inescapable in our society, is still based on those simple harmonic relationships.
But in his thought is the answer to your question: they are playing so freely because they are stretching or contracting the tension between large harmonic movement, at least that is my opinion (except in the case of Schnabel who did have a rushing problem at times - though other times intentional). The tempo variations come from the inner experience of the large structure. What a ridiculous platitude I just wrote. Well, you know what I mean!
Walter Ramsey
Topic: Technique