What is it acceptable to not perform from memory in a solo recital?

[pytheamateur]

I know you can play with the sheet music for some contemporary works and when you play chamber music or accompany someone.

What about playing Bach?  Could someone tell me what the rule in the profession is?  I remember attending a recital in Wigmore Hall by Richard Goode.  He started with Bach, which he played with the sheet music, but memorised the rest of the programme.  Is this usual?

[pytheamateur]

"WHEN is it acceptable..."

[haydnseeker]

Maurizio Pollini used the music for Book 1 of the Well Tempered Clavier in the first of his 'Pollini Project' recitals at the Royal Festival Hall earlier this year.

[pianoplayjl]

probably some very epic pieceor some last minute learnt pieces..

[gvans]

It was Liszt who first popularized playing from memory. Before him, Beethoven famously castigated a student who tried to play one of his sonatas from memory, feeling it was impossible to memorize all the dynamic markings, etc., as well as the notes, and render an accurate performance. All that has changed over the past hundred years, started by our 200th-birthday boy Liszt. Nowadays solo pianists play from memory--it is the odd duck who uses music. Some of the famous virtuosos, as they age, have gone back to having a score on the rack.

I personally think there's no harm in it, as long as you have a good page turner. Ay, and there's the rub. You never know who you might get at a concert. I heard Peter Serkin play a Wuourinen Scherzo with a score, and it was a fabulous performance. The page turner, though, knew what she was doing.

[pytheamateur]

It was Liszt who first popularized playing from memory. Before him, Beethoven famously castigated a student who tried to play one of his sonatas from memory, feeling it was impossible to memorize all the dynamic markings, etc., as well as the notes, and render an accurate performance. All that has changed over the past hundred years, started by our 200th-birthday boy Liszt. Nowadays solo pianists play from memory--it is the odd duck who uses music. Some of the famous virtuosos, as they age, have gone back to having a score on the rack.

Thanks for the info.  This reminds me of a talk I went to recently.  Apparently, Liszt and three of his contemporaries (Clara Schumann, Thalberg and someone else) were judged on a set of criteria regarding their playing.  Liszt came out on top on everything except for one thing, which he came bottom: accuracy.

I wonder whether his alleged inaccuracies were due to memory lapses.  I can't imagine him playing wrong notes because of technical imperfections.

[danhuyle]

I've seen Hamelin playing Chopin/Godowsky with music.

Who cares about playing from memory. I consider playing/performing from memory a bonus.

Think about it this way.

Let's say I perform 4 Chopin Ballades from memory and a great pianist, like Zimmerman or Ashkenazy performs the 4 Chopin Ballades with music.

Who do you think will come out on top? Playing from memory is irrelevant. See my point?

Playing from memory does not impress. It's a bonus. Even if Zimmerman plays the 4 Chopin Ballades with music, his performance (with music) still crushes most pianists who play them from memory.

Playing from memory does not mean you are better and does not impress anyone.

There's pieces that just don't force you to memorize. Take Burgmuller Op100 No1-25 for example. I like playing them however, why memorize it? It doesn't force me to do it. It's way easier than Liszt Transcendental Etudes, and it doesn't force me to memorize it. Why waste all the energy and time memorizing?

You should let the piece memorize you instead of you memorizing it.
I can play Liszt Transcendental Etudes 1,5,10,12 from memory and I can't memorize TE 3. I seriously cannot memorize TE 3 for reasons I'll never understand. But why bother memorizing it? Liszt TE 1,5,10,12 I memorized those effortlessly because it just happened.

[pytheamateur]

Thanks for all your input so far.  What's the convention for conversatoires?  Do they require students to play pieces from memory in all the exams?

[rachfan]

I came across a YouTube video of Berezovsky playing as an encore Rachmaninoff's 1940 revision of the "Melodie", Op. 3, No.3 at a recital in a very large concert hall. He came on stage with the score and laid all the pages out on the music desk, then proceeded to perform, which he did quite well.  When he reached the flashy coda cadenza, he skipped it entirely and instead played only the closing notes in the last measure of the piece.  I've recorded the piece for Piano Street, so noticed the omission. Here's my guess: Where he showed up with the score, clearly he had intended to play this encore, but equally as clear, he wasn't yet secure enough to play it from memory without mishap .  I would also surmise that where he omitted the coda cadenza, he had likely very recently learned the piece, and had not mastered the figuration.  (It's more difficult to play than it sounds.) So he wisely decided to avoid the risk of attempting it. Otherwise his playing from the score was beautiful and the audience loved hearing this novelty.  I think he made the right choices in the circumstances.

David

  

[pytheamateur]

I came across a YouTube video of Berezovsky playing as an encore Rachmaninoff's 1940 revision of the "Melodie", Op. 3, No.3 at a recital in a very large concert hall. He came on stage with the score and laid all the pages out on the music desk, then proceeded to perform, which he did quite well.  When he reached the flashy coda cadenza, he skipped it entirely and instead played only the closing notes in the last measure of the piece.  I've recorded the piece for Piano Street, so noticed the omission. Here's my guess: Where he showed up with the score, clearly he had intended to play this encore, but equally as clear, he wasn't yet secure enough to play it from memory without mishap .  I would also surmise that where he omitted the coda cadenza,he had likely very recently learned the piece, and had not mastered the figuration.  (It's more difficult to play than it sounds.) So he wisely decided to avoid the risk of attempting it. Otherwise his playing from the score was beautiful and the audience loved hearing this novelty.  I think he made the right choices in the circumstances.

David

  

Thanks for this. It clearly shows that even concert pianists like Berezovsky need time to learn and perfect pieces.  For a long time I was under the mistaken belief that once you have reached a certain level you could just sight read pretty much everything.

[pianoplunker]

I know you can play with the sheet music for some contemporary works and when you play chamber music or accompany someone.

What about playing Bach?  Could someone tell me what the rule in the profession is?  I remember attending a recital in Wigmore Hall by Richard Goode.  He started with Bach, which he played with the sheet music, but memorised the rest of the programme.  Is this usual?

Hi, my first post / reply here - hope it goes well. Anyhow, I wouldnt say there is some musical rule regarding using sheet music at a performance but it sure can be dreadful if it is an outdoor venue and windy. Memorization is very handy. It also reflects thourough knowledge of the material but many times us musicians must play something for the first time in a performance in which case being able to read the sheet music is more valuable than memory for obvious reasons. I would bet Richard Goode simply perfomed based on how he felt he could get the most expression. I dont think reading hurts expression - just my opinion. 

[pianoplayjl]

A person while learning a piece should memorize as he/she goes along. Somehow in my opinion performing with the sheet music is more harder than doing it without the sheet music. The sheet music is only there to help you pick up the notes. To me, sheet music is a source of distraction and so thats why when I learn a new peice I try to memorize the notes as I learn along the pages. Once you've got the notes in your head you just have to worry about perfecting the piece. Somehow I also found that memorizing the notes was abit easier compared to memorizing the dynamic changes and articulation. I for one thing when the notes are memorized, the music flows better. Even though memorizing is easier in my opinion, I never do it for memory in an exam because whenever I stumble I need to know where I am so that I can pick up where I made a mistake. Even though needing the sheet music I found out that I never stared at the music once during my last exam. I only stared at my hands and keys. Bach indeed is hard to memorize. Probably because his music contains so much polyphony and that polyphony can make dense textures. In my exam I never to do any piece for memory somehow. I forgot to open the music and so played Bach for memory. I got commended for that.

I came across a YouTube video of Berezovsky playing as an encore Rachmaninoff's 1940 revision of the "Melodie", Op. 3, No.3 at a recital in a very large concert hall. He came on stage with the score and laid all the pages out on the music desk, then proceeded to perform, which he did quite well.  When he reached the flashy coda cadenza, he skipped it entirely and instead played only the closing notes in the last measure of the piece.  I've recorded the piece for Piano Street, so noticed the omission. Here's my guess: Where he showed up with the score, clearly he had intended to play this encore, but equally as clear, he wasn't yet secure enough to play it from memory without mishap .  I would also surmise that where he omitted the coda cadenza, he had likely very recently learned the piece, and had not mastered the figuration.  (It's more difficult to play than it sounds.) So he wisely decided to avoid the risk of attempting it. Otherwise his playing from the score was beautiful and the audience loved hearing this novelty.  I think he made the right choices in the circumstances.

David

 

He definitely did the right thing. In that circumstance I would have done the same or switch to another piece, if possible. The risk could have paid off thiough. If it did that would be extraordinary in my opinion.

JL

[mike_lang]

I know you can play with the sheet music for some contemporary works and when you play chamber music or accompany someone.

What about playing Bach?  Could someone tell me what the rule in the profession is?  I remember attending a recital in Wigmore Hall by Richard Goode.  He started with Bach, which he played with the sheet music, but memorised the rest of the programme.  Is this usual?

In a few words (this is the rule that I adhere to):

Learn it well enough that it is memorized.

Whether you use the score on stage or not is up to you.

Cheers,
Mike

[justharmony]

It's not about some arbitrary rule, or at least it shouldn't be, in my opinion.  It's about the music and what best serves the performance of said music, and that could mean different things for different people.  For some, memorizing is natural, makes sense, and eliminates the potential distraction of page turns. For others, maybe memory issues themselves provide more potential for mis-steps and distractions.  I can go with either approach in service to a good performance.

M.

[gvans]

This is a bit off topic, since the original question was about "solo" recitals, but, hey, it's about memory:

Hans von Bulow, the famous pianist and conductor and a close friend of Johannes Brahms, was such a demanding conductor that he insisted his orchestra memorize each work before a concert, as he did. Amazing, no?

Apparently von Bulow was so busy memorizing, conducting, and getting his orchestra to memorize, that he failed to notice when his wife, Cosima Liszt (yes, Franz's daughter) ran off with Richard Wagner for two years and had a couple of kids with him.

You could say he memorized some things, and forgot others.

[bleicher]

It's always acceptable to play with the music, if you play better with the music.