Request for Fernandito: tell us about Volodos's teacher! (please)

[cziffra]

I read in another post that you are now being taught by the woman responsible for Radu Lupu and Volodos 
...i must say you are possibly the most attractive person in the world right now.  Anything you'd like to pass on? 

[cziffra]

well...i guess not.

[ahmedito]

Sorry. I only post now because... well. VACATION AT LAST!!!

What can I pass on, I think its nothing that no one already knows.

Practice as much as you can.
Never practice with a cold heart and a hot head. Think and feel. Volodos and Lupu started very late. Especially Volodos. Galina was also a child prodigy, although she chose to teach. For her, there are absolutely no technical problems. Al technique is in your head. Like Volodos said. You need a lot of imagination. The way she says it is: There are no hard things on the piano. (Technically at least). Any hard passage can be broken down int doing a lot of easy things at once or really fast one after another. In other words, you have to train your mind to think as fast as possible and your ears to hear as fast and as cantabile as possible. Not your fingers to play as fast as possible. That way, your technique will not only be complete, but it will not be empty. Its easy to play a chromatic scale very fast. Its very hard to hear every single note in that scale, regulate the quality with which you play it and correctly intonate the conection between every note. So always ALWAYS break up everything into the smallest possible units that your mind can handle. Thats basically all she tells you about technique. Hear everything you do, and play in the most natural way possible. And always have a lot of enthusiasm for what you play.

What she tells you cant really be resumed into one thing. The only thing I can say is that she always makes you love playing, even if she is so strict.

[bernhard]

Exactly. If the mind is clear, the fingers will always comply.

Thank you for sharing.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[cziffra1980]

Hey, Fernandito, are you the guy that said you've heard loads of recordings of Volodos as a student? Any chance you can make copies? I have tonnes of Volodos recordings that I can trade with you (and I could keep quiet about where I got them).

Andrew

[ahmedito]

I sent you a mail already, but just in case: the rights to all the recordings belong to my school. I can listen to them in the library but only Volodos himself, his ex-teacher or the school itself can copy them. I'll see what I can do though, because some of the teachers (well, some of the assistants) that studied when he was here have home recordings of the concerts and I have no problem copying those. No need to trade, when school starts Ill see what I can do.

[cziffra]

If you could do that, you would literally be the most awesome person in the world.  I want to have your babies.