Sorry guys, to dispel the myths. But no one is self-taught. A teacher teaches, a student learns. The teacher cannot learn for the student, and the student cannot teach himself.
However, there are some people in this world who are ungrateful, unappreciative and like to give themselves airs by spitting out mythologies about themselves. It is actually quite sad, because many of these people are talented enough – some are even genius – that the truth that at some point in their lives someone – most likely a humble and unknown individual - gave them the time and dedication to start them off should not harm the high image they have of themselves. I never liked Brendel’s playing and his personality (from what I get from interviews) also sucks.
Of course he had many teachers who taught him a lot. And now that he is a famous pianist and the teacher that had to put up with him as an insufferable brat (they all are) could say: “Look: he was my student”, Brendel goes on to say that he never had any teacher. This is mean and petty. However he will wax lyrical about “my teacher Edwin Fisher” (actually the title of one of the chapters in one of his books), when he had perhaps 5 or 6 masterclasses with Fisher in his late 20s. Why does he say Fisher was his teacher? Simple: Fisher was famous and Brendel is a name-dropper.
The maximum someone can say is that they are
self-learned. But then aren’t we all ? (so there you are: not glamorous enough).
So here are the facts regarding the other pianists mentioned:
Busoni:
His father was the virtuoso clarinetist Ferdinando Busoni and his mother, the concert pianist Anna Weiss-Busoni. Ferruccio's unusual gifts were recognized early; he received initial instruction from his parents – especially from his father - and gave his first concert in Trieste before he was eight.
In 1876 the Busoni family settled in Graz, where Ferruccio was taught by Wilhelm Mayer, at that time a prominent composer under the pseudonym of'A. Remy'. Mayer taught Busoni until the age of twelve.
Busoni fully recognised the debt to his teachers by dedicating to Meyer (explicitly mentioned as his teacher) his Preludio e fugo Op.7 for organ, a prelude on a ground and double fugue on a chorale.
As for his father teaching, he reminisced later in life:
“For four consecutive hours a dayhe would sit with me at the piano forte with an eye on every note and every finger”
You can read the details here:
https://www.rodoni.ch/busoni/Busoni_Bio.pdfGould:
A site has already been provided about Gould’s teachers (first his mother and then most importantly Alberto Guerreiro – besides others)
Godowsky:
His first teacher was his adoptive father Louis Passinock, an amateur violinist who ran a piano shop and his wife Minna, who played the piano. Louis taught him the violin, and Minna the rudiments of the piano.
At 12 he studied under Woldemar Bargiel, Ernst Rudorff and Joseph Joachim, at the Berlin High School of Music (Hochschule).
Although he had plans to study with Liszt, Liszt died, and instead Saint Saens accepted him as a pupil. Godowsky was 16 years old.
Let us make no mistakes here, Yes, Godovsky was a child prodigy. Yes, he was probably a handful for his teachers, and yes he quickly learned everything they had to teach and far surpassed them. But self-taught? Hardly. Being an ungrateful b****d and wanting to perpetuate the myth that he was self-taught (it impresses the ignoramus) he claimed that “I played a lot for Saint Saens, but Saint Saens never taught me anything.”
Richter:
Richter’s father was a piano teacher and concert pianist. His mother played the piano (she was originally one of her father’s students). His parent’s house was a meeting point of musicians. He started learning the piano at age 8. His mother, then his father taught him. He had great respect for his father both as a teacher and as a musician. The idea that he never learned any piano from anyone until he met Newhaus in his 20s is preposterous. What was probably originally meant is that he never had any “formal” training in the sense that he never attended a conservatory or music school, until enrolling in the Conservatory under Newhaus. But then this was quite common. Even now it is not unheard off. One example is Charles Rosen who at age 11 dropped music school and only attended private lessons (he never attended a conservatory and this did not stop him from becoming a concert pianist and a music scholar).
My source for Richter is… Richter himself! He tells it all in the Bruno Monsangeon documentary “Richter the enigma”.
But people are never satisfied with the simple truth. They have to embellish. Many times the artist himself adds to the myth (Vladimir de Pachmann for instance was always telling tall stories about himself).
Also have a look here for a similar discussion:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3689.0.htmlEvery time you come across a pianist/composer that you believ was selftaught google this: "composer/pianist's name teachers". It is not that difficult.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
Topic: Self-taught pianists