Total Freedom

[zhiliang]

Hi,

I watched a concert yesterday at the local Esplanade Hall featuring the Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky. He plays a few of the Chopin Op. 10 etudes and the Godowsky transcriptions of their counterparts, and ending it with the Pictures At An Exhibition and Godowsky-Chopin Minute Waltz and Rachmaninoff Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 as the 2 encores.

What strikes me most were the Chopin etudes and Godowsky etudes. There seem to be an efortless mastery and ease with his playing of those, so much so that he can concentrate solely on the musical contents of it. Some portions are overly pedalled in my opinion and especially in the encores (which i cant complain about them as they are gifts to the audience). But the thing that i want to ask, is how can one gain that flexibility in his arpeggios in the Op. 10 No. 1 or the double arpeggios in the Godowsky transcripiton of it? There seems to be so much economy of movement, he was like almost still but yet within that stillness, the hands, the fingers and the entire playing apparatus seems to achieve this freedom, this extreme suppleness and elasticity like rebounding and still having total control over the tone and everything..... Its hard to answer or even ask by one question, but how can one achieve that suppleness?

Thanks....

Zhiliang

[bernhard]

By aiming at it.

The easiness displayed by some perfomers when playing what is regarded by the general publis as fiendishly difficult is not a theatrical act. That is, they are not "pretending" or "acting" easy, while internally they are struggling with the passage. For them that passage/piece is genuinely easy.

Of course they were not born that way. They worked hard to make it easy. However, to make it easy has to be your aim from the very beginning.

If you constantly say to yourself: "This is fiendishly difficult", you will end up believing it. And if you believe it is difficult, then how can it ever be easy?

Instead say to yourself: "There is a way to play this piece/passage that will render it easy as pie; I know it, I have seen people perform it with great ease." Your job now (by no means an easy job) is to figure out what is this way that will make it easy for you (there is no guarantee that what works for some pianist will work for you.

To play effortlessly takes a lot of effort.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[julie391]

indeed!

i am a fan of this pianist, and i have his la roque d'antheron DVD of liszt's etudes.

i have also heard some of his chopin-godowsky studues on radio - and whilst very impressive - they sound technically inferior to hamelin's

there is no secret to this, this is just what happens when you work hard at piano for years and years

'To play effortlessly takes a lot of effort.'

very true! 

[zhiliang]

This certainly sounds inspiring....

Just to sidetrack a bit.... I have read in Volodos's interview that he doesnt do much technical exercises or scales and when asked how he gained his tremendous technique, he said all it was that he had the sound image in his mind, and all he goes about doing is to recreate the sound he wants to produce in his mind, and through that and probably a lot of experimenting. We all know that he started late in his piano studies too. Is there some truth to what he has said? It seems possible..... Your views?

Zhiliang

[Brian Healey]

When I was having trouble with a piece, I had a teacher say to me, "nothing with the piano is difficult. All you have to do to master anything is discover its simplicity." He was talking about playing the piano, but the same mentality applies to all of life.

Also, a lot of Volodos said is similar to the ideas in Kenny Werner's book "Effortless Mastery." If your interested in relaxed, effortless playing, you seriously need to examine this book. In case anyone has not have noticed, I'm a huge advocate of this book. If you did a search of the forum, you'd probably find that I've mentioned this book a ton of times. Hey Kenny, my check's in the mail, right?

[julie391]

it must be remembered that volodos started piano at around 8 (i think) but only took it really serious at age 15.

he WASNT a late starter - similar to paderewski.

[bernhard]

it must be remembered that volodos started piano at around 8 (i think) but only took it really serious at age 15.

he WASNT a late starter - similar to paderewski.

Yes, people often confuse late starters (of which there are very few - perhaps none) with late bloomers, of which there are loads. (I am hanging my hopes on that ).