Famous pianists play the same music. What is the difference from one to other

[dora96]

I heard lots of famous pianists play the same piece of music. Sometimes, I can't hear or see the difference between them. Example When Evgeny Kissin played Grande Valse Brillante Op 34 No1 by Chopin. I also heard from Lang Lang, Yundi  Li. I see them playing in Youtube.   They are basically playing beautifully, the Sound, the rhythm, their style. People comment lots of negative from one to other. How do they know which one is playing correctly or exactly like the composer's intention? I am learning Beethoven pathetique. I listen to Ashkenazy version. My teacher said" he is playing too hard and over dramatic, lack of feeling.  and ask me to listen A.  Blendle It sounds beautiful to me. V.Horowitz and Rubinstein, they are playing as good as the other. I feel that when concert pianists get to that level and as top pianist. They have to be good (their technique, memorization, musicility, they have their exquisite way of expressing the music). What make them difference from one to other. Sometimes, I can notice, sometimes piece of music, and their interpretations  basically beautiful played whatever it is. When I learn new piece of music, I want to listen to the top pianist playing eg. Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin etc. How do I know which pianist CD I should get? Should I follow the public opinion, or follow my instinct, or get the lots and compare from one to other.     

[counterpoint]

How do I know which pianist CD I should get? Should I follow the public opinion, or follow my instinct, or get the lots and compare from one to other.     

Get as many different recordings as possible. It's not a good idea to me just to say "Brendel is good - Ashkenazy is bad" or something like that, if you want to find out how to play a piece. You should not try to imitate others, but to develop your own understanding of the music. It's a life long process 

[shadow88]

I agree with counterpoint.
I also think you should hear different recordings. When I learn a new piece I also hear recordings of amateur pianists, just to compare. Sometimes, you need do get your own opinion of every passage in a piece. For example the Liebestraum by Liszt, I think Lang Lang plays the second cadenza to slow, I don't like it that way, but on another recording, the beginning is to slow, so you should decide in every passage how to play it.

Another way to find a different between pianists is if you look on the composers. I think, the best Chopin Interpret is Pogorelich, but when it comes to Liszt (i.e. the sonata etc) I more like Zimerman!

[dora96]

Get as many different recordings as possible. It's not a good idea to me just to say "Brendel is good - Ashkenazy is bad" or something like that, if you want to find out how to play a piece. You should not try to imitate others, but to develop your own understanding of the music. It's a life long process 

I do understand my teacher forbid me even listen any CD before I master the piece of music. It is nature for piano players to find out how other's interpretations or performance. I don't want to copy a particular pianist. My teacher didn't mean to say Brendel is good Ashkenazy is bad, but that particular song Beethoven Pathetique in her opinion Brendel is better. I haven't heard it yet I don't know. I heard from other Kinderman , Freddy Kempf. or other unknown pianists.  How do you develop your interpretation? Other people comment like Lang Lang plays the liebestraum second cadenza to slow, other people say that is exquisite and creative performance. Or Even Ashkenazy plays Chopin Etude is all about technique lack of emotion and feeling. The performance by pianists are really based on personal taste and opinion. Some people like it some people don't. Is it there no set of rule or strict guidance. Like Freddy Kempf plays Pathetique 3rd movment. Some people complaint about he is very good pianist, but he didn't even bother to count. If I am learning the music, I am very easily influenced by the pianist. What I am try to say? If I am playing in the exam, for some reason the examiner doesn't like my style or my interpretation. I may end up low mark because his bias.     

[ramseytheii]

Sometimes, when learning a piece of music, I feel I can play it better after listening to a great performance.  When I play it after listening to it, is everything in there my original idea?  No, probably not.  But I always wonder, so what?  Why does everyone assume that creating music in isolation is the best way to do it? 

Music as we study it is inherently a collaborative art.  The composer creates a design pattern, and we execute it and bring it to life.  Why should we pretend there is no dialogue between us and other non-composing musicians, when dialogue is at the heart of music?  I find the whole business irritating, to be honest.

Ask yourself next, are you also restricted from going to live performances, if those pianists are playing works which you are currently studying?  Why must we "invent" all our ideas ourselves?  Why can't we absorb, test, judge, criticize, and possibly reject ideas from others?  What is the weakness in that?  What is the fault of that?

I will say for your own thoughts, without explaining further, that obsession with originality is obsession with death.

Walter Ramsey

[dora96]

Thank you for Ramseytheii comment on my post. In my gut feeling, I like to listen some other pianists  the same piece of music. Before I learned the Beethoven pathetique, I have listened it since I was little kid. I didn't understand it, it was classical  music and piano  sound to me. When I became older, I learned it and dropped it and I picked it up again. It is so frustrated my piano teacher, not only one piano and few piano teachers  forbid me even using the pedal when I play this piece, because it is not original. The staccato is not too much, it is really clear indicating there is staccato, and tone color ff, mf, pp, fp etc. have to exact  follow old and original music she taught by her concert pianist. She said, please don't muck about with it, this is classical music. I have to very vigilance about this piece, every single note, phrasing, crescendo, every bit of piece, I have to follow very carefully. In the exam the Trinity or Royal school of music whatever the exam you are. They are so strict about and fussy about the details. Otherwise I won't be able to pass the exam. I do understand what she is coming from.  I feel so dead in my playing the music. When I listen the CD, they are so feel, creative. It is like they are trying telling me beautiful story, or I am looking stunning piece of work of art. I always feel why can't I play as good as the CD

[kghayesh]

Well, in performing a certain piece of music, you never do it exactly the same multiple times. Everytime you perform it, there is something different than the other time. There are so many things in music that depends on your interpretation (i.e: pedalling, phrasing, dynamics...etc.)

When I am saying that the same person can play the same piece in many different ways, imagine what are the possibilites when different persons play the same piece, imagine the possibilites of new ideas and interpretations, even putting in mind that those persons are great pianists of the type of (Yundi Li, Kissin, Brendel...etc.) They are all correct in their own special way, but each of them has something to say through his interpretation. I listen to various recordings to get inspired.

[counterpoint]

I will say for your own thoughts, without explaining further, that obsession with originality is obsession with death.

Presuming that you mean originality as "fidelity to what the composer wrote", I can't see why that should be "obsession with death".

Notated music is already very vague and sketchy, so we are forced to guess what the composer wanted to express. But the things that are written down by the composer are mandatory - otherwise he would not have written them. In classical music we are responsible to the composer. If he is dead, he can't defense himself, so it's quite more important.

But besides that, there are so many things that we can do without counteracting against the written text, so that's the part of interpretation.

Now, even when we obey everything that's written, there are two dangers nevertheless:

- playing only what is written without bringing out the meaning of the piece (that's easier than one should think!)

- misunderstanding what is written, for example playing dotted rhythms with mathematical values, which is wrong in almost any case, playing static (to make it fit the metronome beats), don't using pedal when there is no Ped. sign, playing Alberti-basses exactly as they are written (without holding the bass notes down) etc. etc.

It's not as easy as "just play exactly, then it will be right". We have to consider how the music was played in it's time. And often we just don't know how something is to be played. Then we can only guess. And should not pretend to know what nobody knows  ^_^

[ramseytheii]

Presuming that you mean originality as "fidelity to what the composer wrote", I can't see why that should be "obsession with death".

That's the msot bizarre leap of logic I've ever heard!

Walter Ramsey

[gerryjay]

 i think that it should be more difficult to answer the original question with words than with a significant example. (one of) the best example i can propose is the complete recording of mozart's sonatas made by mitsuko uchida and by glenn gould. there are followers of one or the other, and probably people who will love or hate one or another. anyway, that doesn't matter at all: in the delicate, precise, restrict world of mozart's music, you can compare two radically different approaches (and in my opinion, they work magically).
 my humble opinion thus is simple: taken for granted that is impossible to find The One Version, there are countless. yes, there are boundaries (that in mozart are very narrow: instrument, melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, are all the same) but inside there are much field for creative and for personal expression.
 and i have the most deep respect for anyone who disagree with me (and i like it) because it's exactly what i'm talking about.