40 hours of memorized music?

[stormx]

Hi,

some time ago i watched an interview on TV with the professional piano player Bruno Gelber (one of the best in Argentina, along with Argerich and Baremboin).
He stated that he has 40 hours of piano music in his head !!! That is, he claimed he could sit down on the piano and play by heart 40 hours of music (of course, it would be impossible in practice for obvious reasons, but anyway...).
As a non musician (i am just learning piano), i was very impressed by his claiming.

Question:
could it be true, or was he probably exagerating?

Greetings

[quasimodo]

It's probably true, and some great concert pianists likely have more than this.

[kempff]

Richter had music to fill 80 recitals in his fingers

[fnork]

Didn't Horowitz or Richter do like 40-50 recitals in St Petersburg one year when they were young, WITHOUT EVERY PLAYING THE SAME PIECE TWICE?  I've been told so... wow.

[mound]

amazing.

I see it as quite possible though if the music is properly memorized in the first place..  (and then as Bernhard would suggest, forgotten and relearned)

[anda]

Richter had music to fill 80 recitals in his fingers

how old was richter when he stopped playing his recitals by heart? 35 or so, i believe. but even if he had never memorized a single work, and had always played with the score in front  him (playing the way he does), he would still be one of the greatest pianists ever.

[willcowskitz]

Emil Gilels had over 500 pieces in his head.

[cziffra]

Roger woodward has 100 recital programs (of different pieces in each one)

not to mention leslie howard (the complete liszt, which alone is about 120 hour long cd's worth of (bloody hard) music, and then there's the REST of his repertoire

[bernhard]

40 hours? That is not very much actually. The 32 Beethoven sonatas take about 10 hours. The WTC about 4 hours. Chopin etudes about 1 hour. 15 hours already and you have barely scratched the repertory. In fact, throw in Sorabji’s OC and Satie’s Vexations and you have over 44 hours of playing with just 106 pieces. Richter in his prime was reputed to have over 1500 pieces memorised. Arrau over 1000. (Not learned and mastered, mind you, but memorised).

I am definitely not impressed.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[anda]

are we now rating the pianists by how long they can play by heart?

read this:
https://lugansky.homestead.com/Repertoire.html

except for chamber music, he doesn't use scores (or at least he didn't... i don't know recently)

[stormx]

Keep in mind that i am a complete beginner, so what impresses me is probably normal for music experts !!! 

Thanks for your comments, great forum 

Juan 

PD:
i feel a little intimidated because of the very high expertise level of the members  of this site
I started to study piano just a month ago, and i am struggling  with the very first excercices of the book "IL PRIMO MAESTRO DI PIANOFORTE" by Carl Czerny (op. 599) 

[tocca]

And then we have types like me, who runs out of things to play from memory after an hour or so...
Although i have certainly 15-20 hours of music that "just needs a little work". LOL!!

[anda]

i think i may just have a few hours too: 1 beginner's method, czerny 599, 849, a.m.bach, 6&12 little preludes, quite a few sonatinas plus tons of little pieces for youngsters in their first years shame on me for remembering everything i practice with my students!

[Maui]

Keep in mind that i am a complete beginner, so what impresses me is probably normal for music experts !!! 

Thanks for your comments, great forum 

Juan 

PD:
i feel a little intimidated because of the very high expertise level of the members  of this site
I started to study piano just a month ago, and i am struggling  with the very first excercices of the book "IL PRIMO MAESTRO DI PIANOFORTE" by Carl Czerny (op. 599) 

Dont't get intimidated, this forum is great, everybody has something great to say everytime, you will learn so much reading things here...

[BoliverAllmon]

these claims are probably a little biased.  Koji has mentioned how EVERYONE exaggerates there repertoire to include pieces that could be relearned in about a week or so.

boliver

[lostinidlewonder]

I'm not trying to blow my own horn or anything. But I've been a professional pianist since 2001 and I'm 23yrs old. I haven't been studying as hard as some musicians do, like hours on end for years and years but  I have about 5 hours of piano music memorised in my head. I estimated about 60-80 mins of memorised music per year for myself.
It depends there are 2 types of pianists, sight readers and memorisers, i think we've always impressed each other. 40 hours of memory against sightreading smoething they never seen before. its all good You stand in awe when someone has mastered both. That is just the highest point of piano efficiency! so cool.