The Way that Chopin Played the Piano

[mcdiddy1]

Yes! that was exactly what we said! Good job figuring that out.
...
No, we said: A probable reason to why Beethoven's metronome was so high is because it was easier to play fast at that times instruments

Yea I know I am just kidding.

[spencervirt]

I have heard numerous people say that op. 10 no.1 is infinitely easier on an 1848 Pleyel grand

[lelle]

Yes! that was exactly what we said! Good job figuring that out.
...
No, we said: A probable reason to why Beethoven's metronome was so high is because it was easier to play fast at that times instruments

Wasn't there somebody who said the reason for the high tempos are because you hear music faster in your head than you play it, so when Beethoven was deaf he put metronome markings for the music as he imagined it to sound, not taking into account how it would be when you actually played it?

[mcdiddy1]

I

Wasn't there somebody who said the reason for the high tempos are because you hear music faster in your head than you play it, so when Beethoven was deaf he put metronome markings for the music as he imagined it to sound, not taking into account how it would be when you actually played it?

I have to admit that seems more logical to be than what type of instrument he played. I think the fact he was deaf and much less communicative with others would be a big factor in some of the unusual tempo markings. Wish he was around so he could do some explaining.

[pianisten1989]

Wasn't there somebody who said the reason for the high tempos are because you hear music faster in your head than you play it, so when Beethoven was deaf he put metronome markings for the music as he imagined it to sound, not taking into account how it would be when you actually played it?

Yeah, it was that teacher on the masterclass in Stockholm a week ago ;P
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Though, he wasn't deaf all his life

[lelle]

Yeah, it was that teacher on the masterclass in Stockholm a week ago ;P
...
Though, he wasn't deaf all his life

Hehe I was pretty sure it was. I have a tendency to forget exactly what people say to me at times so I didn't want to put words in his mouth without a backup source lol

[lostinidlewonder]

Trying to understand how someone played without having live recordings for us requires us to investigate the issue to try and come to some conclusions. I wont even try to completely address the issue but at least some points of interest.

According to Karasowski, Chopin was so sensitive to music in his early days that any emotional melody would make him burst into tears. He showed such interest in the piano that when he reached the age of six his parents sent him to the Czech pianist Adalbert Zywny for lessons. This teacher who was a great admirer of J.S Bach found him a brilliant pupil. Frederick Niecks wrote that Chopin "Played the piano as the birds sing: with unconscious art."

Chopin made his debut in Vienna in 1829 at the concert given at the Imperial Theater. He chose to perform Variation on La ci darem la mano (Opus 2) for piano and orchestra and also arranged to play the Krakowaik, but the orchestra made so many mistakes at rehearsal that it was abandoned. Chopin had to replace it with two improvisations, one on a theme from La dam blanche and the other on the Polish song Chmiel. Chopin wrote to his friend Titus Woyciechowski September 12th 1829 "I was in despair and yet the Variations made such an impression that I was recalled several times. All I know about my improvisations is that it was followed by a thunder of applause and several recalls."

The critics in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung declared without hesitations "The exquisite delicacy of his touch, the indescribable dexterity of his technique the subtle finish of his gradations of tone, reflecting a profoundly sensitive nature, the clearness of his interpretation ... reveal a virtuoso richly endowed by nature, who is appearing on the horizon ... as one of its most brilliant meteors."

The Wiener Theaterzeitung was more restrained " ... His touch is neat, but has not the brilliance displayed by our virtuosi from the very first bars ... He plays very quietly, with none of that dash and daring that generally distinguish the artist from the amateur."

Writing home to his parents, Chopin reported "It is said here almost unanimously that I play too softly, or rather, too tenderly, for the public. They are used to the big drum virtuosi ... But I would rather they said I was too gentle than too violent." With Chopin's second concert a week later he was offered by Count Maurice Lichnowsky, one of Beethoven's friends, the use of his piano which was a more resonant instrument.

Chopin also wrote to Woyciechowski on December 16th 1831 " You may easily imagine how curious I was to hear Herz and Hillier play, but they are nothing compared with Kalkbrenner. Honestly speaking, I can play as well as Herz, but I wish I could equal Kalkbrenner. If Paganini is perfect, so also is he, in quite a different manner. His repose, enchanting touch, and smoothness of playing I cannot describe: one recognizes the master in every note- he is a giant who throws all other artists into the shade. When I called upon him, he begged me to play something. What could I do? As I had heard Herz, I took courage, sat down at his instrument and played my E minor Concerto, which charmed the people of the Bavarian capital so much. Kalkbrenner was astonished, and asked me if I were a pupil of Field. He said that I had the style of Cramer, but the touch of Field. It amused me to note that Kalkbrenner, when he played to me, made a mistake and did not know how to go on, but it was wonderful to hear how he found his way again. Since this meeting we have been seeing each other daily; either he calls on me or I on him. He wanted to teach me for three years and make a great artist of me. I told him that I was well aware what I lacked, but would not imitate him, and that three years were too much for me. He had convinced me that I played well only when I am in the right mood, and less well when this is not the case. This cannot be said of Kalkbrenner: his playing is always the same. When he had watched me for a long time he came to the conclusion that I had no method; that I  was indeed on a very good path, but that I might easily go astray; and that when he ceased to play, there would no longer be a representative of the grand pianoforte school left. I cannot create a new school, however much I may wish to do so, because I do not even know the old one. But I know that my tone-poems have some individuality in them, and that I always strive to advance.... But many who dissuade me from taking lessons are of the opinion that I play as well as Kalkbrenner, and that it is only vanity that makes him wish to have me for his pupil. That is nonsense. Whoever knows anything about music must think highly of Kalkbrenner's talent, although he is disliked as a man because he will not associate with everybody. But I can assure you that there is in him something higher than in all the virtuosi whom I have yet heard. I have said this in a letter to my parents, and they quite understand it. Elsner, however, does not comprehend, and regards it as jealousy on Kalkbrenner's part that he not only praises me, but also wishes that my playing were in some respects different from what it is. In spite of all this I can tell you confidentially that my name is already distinguished among artists here."


Chopin's great aspirations at this time are reflected also in a letter to Elsner in which he says "I am known here and there in Germany as a pianist; several musical journals have spoken highly of my concerts, and expressed the hopes of seeing me soon take a prominent position among the leading pianoforte virtuosi. I had today an opportunity of fulfilling the promise I had made to myself. Why should I not embrace it? I should not like to learn pianoforte playing in Germany, for there no one could tell me precisely what I lacked.... Three years study is far too much. Kalkbrenner, when he had heard me several times, came to see that himself. From this you may see that a true, meritorious virtuoso does not know the feeling of envy. I would certainly make up my mind to study for three years longer if I were certain that I should then reach the aim which I have always kept in view. So much is clear to me: I shall never become a copy of Kalkbrenner; he will not be able to break my perhaps bold but noble resolve to create a new art-era. If I now continue my studies I do so only in order to stand at some future time on my own feet...."

The result of this was that Chopin went to study with Kalkbrenner for a little while, but then found some excuse for discontinuing the lessons. They remained friends, however, and it was Kalkbrenner who helped Chopin to organize a concert, which was given in Pleyel's Rooms at 9 Rue Cadet, on January 26th 1832. It was a financial failure but the Fetis in the Revue Musicale stated: "Here is a young man who, by giving himself up to his natural impressions, and taking no model, had discovered, if not a complete revolution in pianoforte music, at least a part of what composers have been seeking in vain for a long time, namely, an abundance of original ideas of a type to be found nowhere else. This does not mean that Chopin had the great gifts of Beethoven..... I speak of pianists' music and it is by comparison with the latter that I find in Chopin's inspirations the sign of a renewal of forms that may exert in time great influence over this branch of art. As an executant also the young artist deserves praise. His playing is elegant, easy, graceful, and possesses brilliance and neatness."

Liszt was present at this concert and spoke very highly of the young pianist. "His whole person was harmonious. His glance was intelligent rather than dreamy; his soft, shrewd smile had no touch of bitterness. The fineness and transparency of his complexion charmed the eye, his fair hair was silky, his nose slightly aquiline, his movements well-bred, and his manners bore such an aristocratic stamp that one involuntarily treated him like a prince. His gestures were frequent and graceful. His voice was always toneless and often indistinct; but he was not very tall, and was slightly built...."

Chopin played several concerts with Liszt, but found little pleasure in convert-giving, and was apt to hold aloof from the public at this time. "The crowd embarrasses me" he told Liszt, "I feel stifled by their breathing, paralysed by their curious glances, mute before their strange faces. But as for you, you are intended for them by fate, for if you cannot win your public, you have the power to stun them."

On April 26th 1841 Chopin gave a concert at the Salle Pleyel. Liszt wrote about this in the Gazette musicale:

"A grand piano was open on the platform; people crowded round eager for the seats nearest to it,.... saying to one another that they must not lose a chord, a note, an intention, a thought of him who was to sit there. An people where right in being thus eager... because he for whome they waited... was not only a clever virtuoso, a pianist expert in the art of making notes, not only an artist of great renown, he was all this an more.... he was Chopin.. "

"... Only rarely, at distant intervals, has Chopin played in public; but what would have been for anyone else an almost certain cause of oblivion and obscurity has been precisely what has assured to him a fame above the caprices of fashion, and kept him from rivalries, jealousies, and injustice. Chopin, who has taken no part in the extreme movement which for several years has thrust one on another and one against another the executive artists from all quarters of the world, has been constantly surrounded by faithful adepts,.... all of whom ... have not ceased to spread abroad his works and with them admiration for his name. Moreover, this exquisite, altogether lofty, and eminently aristocratic celebrity had remained unattacked."

"For monday's concert Chopin chose those of his works which do not comply with the classical forms. He played neither concertos, nor sonatas, nor fantasias, nor variations; but prelues, studies, nocturnes and mazurkas. Addressing himself to a society rather than to a public, he could show himself as he is: an elegiac poet, profound, chaste and dreamy. He did not need to astonish or to overwhelm: he sought for delicate sympathy rather than for noisy enthusiasm... From the first chord there was established a close communication between him and the audience. Two studies and a ballade were encored, and had it not been for the fear of adding to the already great fatigue which betrayed itself on his pale face, people would have asked for a repetition of the pieces of the programme one by one."

This warm tribute from one so great as Liszt (himself the greatest pianist of the age) placed the art of Chopin on the pinnacle from which it has never been dislodged. Within a year Chopin gave another concert at the same place Feburary 21st 1842 and the program consisted of three mazurkas, A-flat major, B major and A minor; three studies, A flat major, F minor and Cminor; the Ballade in A-flat major, four noctures, a prelude in F-flat and an impromptu in G.

What qualities contributed to Chopin's technique as a pianist? Niecks mentions first the suppleness and equality of his fingers, and the perfect independence of his hands. Mikuli states: "The eveness of his scales and passages in all kinds of touch was unsurpassed, nay, prodigious"

His hands where small, light and delicate, yet they could expand in a most remarkable fashion to cover a third of the keyboard. He always believed that the position of the hand was the first essential to be considered when trying to acquire a good touch. Kleczynski tells us he trained the hand with infinite care before allowing it to start reproducing musical ideas, "In order to give the hand a position at once graceful and convenient ... he would make the pupil drop it lightyly on the keyboard so that the five fingers rested upon the notes E, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-sharp and B. This was for him the normal position." These notes he would make the pupil play as a five-finger exercise, first in a light staccato, then heavier staccato, then accenuated legato, then finally normal legato style. He would then make the pupil repeat the process with the left hand on F, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat and C.

These exercises occur normally in the scales of B major and D-flat major respectively, consequently they were the first scales his pupils would be asked to practice, and always staccato at first. "Then" according to Kleczynski, "by the various graduations of mezzo staccato, accenuated staccato, etc.... lifting the fingers high, and by the mere play of the muscles, they arrived at passing the thumb without allowing the hand to lose its horizonal position. Next, the hand was allowed to proceed to more different scales, to arpeggio passages, in which even the very wide intervals are stretched as they occur, without effort, and even without lifting the fingers very high. I know by experience that by this means one arrives at an even and sure touch." Suppleness was Chopin's great objective in this. He would stand by his pupil repeating over and over again "Facilement... facilement..." (easily, easily). Stiffness and jerkiness would esasperate him. On one occasion when a pupil played some arpeggios in a clumsy, jerky fashion, he jumped up from the chair and said "Qu'est-ce? Est-ce un chien qui vient d'aboyer?" (What is that? Has a dog been barking?" He was always very irritable, but tired hard not to show anger in front of a pupil. He would often get up, stand behind the pupil with a wretched expression upon his face, and in an effort to control himself, would break his pencils into pieces.

Chopin always warned his pupils against practising too much. One lady, thinking it would please him, said that she had been practising for six hours a day since her last lesson. He immediately displayed irritability at such foolishness and told her never to do more than three hours a day.

He made his pupils use Clementi's Preludes et Exercises, particulary the second volume, which he esteemed very highly. Other such books used by his pupils included Cramer's Etudes and Clementi's Gradus ad Parnassum (which Godowsky was also particular to for teaching), but he was also very fond of prescribing the Suites of J.S Bach and various fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier.

Being deficient in physical strength, Chopin made a speciality of the cantabile style, and he always insisted upon smooth playing by his pupils. One of his sharpest and most sarcastic criticisms was "He cannot play two notes legato." He would emphasize the value of ensemble playing if first rate performers could be found to co-operate, and of listening to good singing if the pupil could not sing themselves. His pupils were invariably urged to go as frequently as possible to the Italian opera, and to pay special attention to the singers' phrasing and expression. Bad phrasing on the piano, he told Mikuli, sounded to him exactly like someone reciting, in a language he did not understand, a speech that had been laboriously memorized. "The musician who phrases badly" he would say, "shows that music is not his mother-tongue, but something quite foreign and unintelligible to him."

Concerning Chopin's much discussed tempo rubato, here is Liszt's take on it:
"In his playing the great artist rendered enchantingly that sort of emotional trepidation, timid or breathless, that seizes the heart when one believes oneself to be in the presence of supernatural beings... He always made the melody undulate like a light boat borne on the bosom of a mighty billow, or else he would give it a wavering motion, like an aerial apparition suddenly arising in this tangible and palpable world. He indicates this in his compositions... by the words tempo rubato: stolen, broken time, at once supple, abrupt and languishing.. like a cornfield rippling under the soft pressure of a warm breeze, like tree-tops bent hither and thither at the whim of a capricious gust."

Mikuli's description was less poetical: "While the singing hand, either irresolutely lingering or, as in passionate speech, eagerly anticipating with a certain impatient vehemence, freed the truth of the musical expression from all rhythmical fetters, the other, the accompanying hand, continued to play strickly in time. " Neicks also quotes the music critic of the Athenaeum saying: "He makes free use of tempo rubato: leaning about within the bars more than any player we recollect, but still subject to a presiding measure such as presently habituates the ear to the liberties taken." But we should not let ourselves imagine that Chopin tolerated any rhythmical slovenliness, for Madame Steicher assures us that he detested any sign of languor, dragging of the time, misplaced rubato and exaggerated ritardando.

During Chopin's first few years in Paris he always used an Erard piano. Then he was presented with a Pleyel and preferring its very light touch, would use no other make of instrument if he could avoid it. when he visited England he used a Broadwood, a make which he spoke appreciatively on several occasions.

[slane]

ooh oooh , I just read a quote from the History of Western Music attributed to Chopin. When one of his pupils apologised for breaking a string on the piano who replied "If that polanaise were played as it should be, all the strings would be broken". The author didn't give a source.

[spencervirt]

Thanks for that amazing and thorough reply! There is much to be learned from that!

Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed reading that!

[airlon100]

A famous story disproves what is being stated and thats when one of Chopin's pupils (Ludwig Goodman) was playing Chopin's polonaise in Ab and he broke one of the strings in his piano. So Chopin came in the room with his cane (Chopin was a 90 pound weakling at that time he was quite old), and Goodman got up all confused and apologized and then Chopin said: ah it is okay do not worry for if I had my strength then there would be no strings left in the piano.

Did he mean that? You know, who knows! I'll let the scholars figure that one out. As a general principle of music I believe that you should interpret the music and personalize it according to yourself. 

[lostinidlewonder]

A famous story disproves what is being stated

What statements? Chopin himself admitted that critics found his playing generally too gentle, are we to believe that he was making that up? If he was of any weakening health during those times he would have mentioned it in his letters, but instead he merely says he rather be considered too gentle than too violent.

I'll let the scholars figure that one out. 

Figure out whether Chopin was strong enough to break piano strings? I don't think it is important. However all one has to do is read some letters to come to an accurate understanding how the public, other famous musicians, critics and how the man himself perceived his playing. No one mentions breaking of strings in his concerts.

[pianoplayjl]

If I remember correctly, Chopin was criticized for playing too softly in his pieces.