Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for Themselves

413 Pages·1991·5.77 MB·English

by  Elyse Mach

GREAT CONTEMPORARY PIANISTS
SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
ELYSE MACH
TWO VOLUMES BOUND AS ONE
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC., NEW YORK
Volume 1 copyright © 1980 by Elyse Mach.
Volume 2 copyright © 1988 by Elyse Mach.
All rights reserved.
This Dover edition, first published in 1991, is an unabridged republication of Great Pianists Speak for
Themselves, Volumes 1 and 2, originally published by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., New York, in 1980
and 1988. The frontispiece to Volume 2 has been deleted.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mach, Elyse.
[Great pianists speak for themselves]
Great contemporary pianists speak for themselves / Elyse Mach.
p. cm.
Reprint. Originally published: Great pianists speak for themselves.
New York : Dodd, Mead, 1980–1988.
eISBN-13: 978-0-486-17354-2
1. Pianists—Interviews. I. Title.
[ML397.M28 1991]
786.2’092`2—dc20
90-27877
CIP
MN
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
26695807
www.doverpublications.com
GREAT CONTEMPORARY PIANISTS
SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
ELYSE MACH
V 1
OLUME
TO AUNT LISA
You see my piano is for me what his frigate is to a sailor, or his horse to an Arab
—more indeed: it is my very self, my mother tongue, my life. Within its seven
octaves it encloses the whole range of an orchestra, and a man’s ten fingers
have the power to reproduce the harmonies which are created by hundreds of
performers.
Franz Liszt, in an open letter to Adolphe Pictet, written in Chambéry, September
1837, and published in the Gazette musicale of February 11, 1838
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
EVERY book is the product of the thought and work of many people, and I am
especially grateful to those individuals whose generous help has made this book
possible. Special acknowledgments go to Allen Klots, my editor, for his
encouragement, pertinent suggestions, and professional expertise on the
preparation of this manuscript; to Robert Silverman, editor and publisher of The
Piano Quarterly, for his immeasurable help and advice on various phases of this
project, and for granting permission to reprint excerpts of my earlier interview
with Vladimir Horowitz, and an excerpt from Brede and Gloria Ackerman’s
interview with André Watts; to my dear friends and colleagues Anthony
Brenner, Chicago City College, Ann and David Pope, Bowling Green State
University, and William Schutt, Northeastern Illinois University, for their
valuable help on the interviews and incisive comments on the manuscript; to the
directors and staffs of the artist managements and personal managements,
namely, Herbert Barrett Management, Herbert Breslin, Inc., Colbert Artists,
Columbia Artists, ICM Artists, Judd Concert Bureau, Allied Arts Association,
Alix Williamson, and Friede Rothe, for their professional support and invaluable
assistance in arranging interviews with the artists and for responding so
graciously to my requests for biographical information, photographs, and other
data; to Robert Meissner, Kim Kronenberg, and Beatrice Stein, for their great
assistance in contacting artists and procuring information and materials; to the
late Harry Zelzer and his wife Sarah, for their generous help on the artist
interviews; to Jerry Bush for his fine technical assistance; to Pauline Durack and
Margaret Lynch, for their enormous assistance at home taking care of my three
sons, Sean, Aaron and Andrew; to the members of my family, for their patient
understanding and cooperation despite the inconveniences while this book was
in preparation; and finally, to the artists, a very special measure of thanks for
their generosity in granting interviews.
Elyse Mach
CONTENTS
Introduction by Sir Georg Solti
Preface
Claudio Arrau
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Alfred Brendel
John Browning
Alicia de Larrocha
Misha Dichter
Rudolf Firkušný
Glenn Gould
Vladimir Horowitz
Byron Janis
Lili Kraus
Rosalyn Tureck
Andreé Watts
Index
INTRODUCTION
TO attempt a definition of the nature of a concert pianist is to try to capture the
wind. Some were born into a family of music, it is true, but few can boast of the
outstanding pianistic abilities of parents or grandparents. Indeed, many
overcame the opposition of a family to a musical career. Some began to show a
musical preference almost as soon as they could walk; others developed
somewhat along the lines of their physical maturity.
But all had something—the talent; it had to be there, because musical talent is
something that cannot be learned. Such superb pianists as Chopin, Liszt,
Rachmaninoff, Sauer, Cortot, Backhaus, to name a few—they all had it, and the
artists in this book have it. No one can make a pianist like them because the
mixture of pianist and musician is a marvelous, almost magical mixture. Anyone
who is the least bit musical can learn to play the piano up to a certain point, but
at that point progress ceases. The magic that makes the concert pianist or any
instrumentalist is not there. For want of a better term, I call it a demon, a devil, a
benign devil, but a devil nevertheless. Although a concert may last two hours or
more, to the audience it seems like two minutes because they have become
mesmerized by the demon that sits at the piano. Not every artist has it to the
same degree, but each has enough of it to make him an outstanding pianist.
Given the talent, the prospective artist must have a firm determination to
succeed. Some call it stubbornness, others, industriousness, but it’s all the same.
To achieve something you believe in is extremely important, especially for the
young artist. An artist can always find someone who may not like him personally
or agree with him professionally, but he must not allow such attitudes to affect
his work or hinder his career. Criticism has to be overcome daily, and a truly
good pianist will overcome it. No one can prevent true talent from its rightful
destiny. Detours should only serve to make the talent more determined.
It should go without saying that the third ingredient is discipline which is the
constant companion of the professional musician; and the virtuoso evolves from
that daily practice. Moving the fingers up and down the keyboard becomes for
most a daily battle, but one which constantly has to be won. There may have
been a few exceptions to the rule, but eventually their absence of discipline
caught up with them. The professional pianist can give performances without
practicing maybe for a week or two, but usually no longer. As the Polish pianist
and statesman, Ignace Paderewski, is known to have once remarked, “If I don’t
practice for one day, I know it; if I don’t practice for two days, the critics know
it; and if I don’t practice for three days, the audience knows it.”
As one reads Great Pianists Speak for Themselves, it becomes very clear that
these keyboard artists did not rely on a miracle or good luck. They are men and
women with talent who through industriousness, discipline, and belief in self-
achieved stature have become the great pianists of all time. How they reflect
upon themselves, their art, and their music should be very interesting indeed, for
these are the thoughts of the artists themselves, not what someone else has
chosen to write about them.
PREFACE
THE reluctance of famous people to grant interviews is understandable in the
light of the number of misquotes, misinterpretations, and undeveloped
generalizations usually attributed to them. Statements assigned notables are not
usually distorted intentionally but, when one considers that the personage is
questioned as he or she runs for a plane, leaves a stage, or enters a car, half-
truths become commonplace.
The artists in this book gave several hours of their time so that they could add
depth to their responses, especially in those areas that seemed most important to
them. Since the pianists were quite communicative, it was decided to let them
speak freely without prompting or interjection from the interviewer.
Consequently, the reader will find little interruption in the artists flow of speech.
Question-and-answer interviews have their advantage, but they do not often
allow the interviewee to develop his or her perceptions. While the danger of
writer interpretation is ever present, by presenting the artists’ views as they
expand on them, the interviewer avoids putting words into their mouths. It is
regrettable that tensions between the Western world and the U.S.S.R. curtailed
access to the great pianists of the Soviet Union, and one such interview that was
granted had to be withdrawn following recent defections by Soviet artists
traveling abroad.
This book is intended for a wide audience because the artists themselves
believe that their ideas and viewpoints touch all aspiring musicians, especially
pianists, as well as teachers and music audiences. The parent who thinks his
child has talent will note the various views on when and how to begin the
youngster at the keyboard; the teacher of piano has the opportunity to study the
influences of pedagogy, both in quantity and quality, on the student; and,
perhaps most important of all, the serious piano student can clearly see what is in
store for one who chooses the concert stage as a career.
Lastly, this book is intended for that vast group of aficionados of classical
music whose appreciation of artistic skills brings them to the concert halls and to
the record shops. How the virtuoso views himself, his art, and his public should
satisfy the innate curiosity everyone has about famous individuals. The history
of the talent, its development, and fruition will make even the dilettante more
appreciative of the artistic accomplishments of these virtuosi.
Elyse Mach