The article Cate Blanchett: “The Thing That Really Struck Me Is That in the Beginning, I Wasn’t Breathing — That’s Just So Important for Conducting. You Have to Breathe With the Orchestra” was firstly published in Piano Magazine ..read more

It is fascinating how some pianists’ reputations continue to grow after their death while others’ do not. The French pianist Alfred Cortot, for example, is still known by present-day piano lovers 60 years after his death — doubtless due not only to the great number of recordings he made but also the marvellous editions he produced of scores by Chopin and other great composers, as well as the books he wrote. And yet other pianists who were his colleagues and fine artists themselves, with careers of note, are all but forgotten. One of these is Robert Lortat. Born in 1885, he was, like Cortot, a ..read more

Modern audiences have other distractions such as televisions, jukeboxes and the like, making the humble piano player something of a rarity across the world. It wasn’t always the case; from the East End of London to the bright lights of the United States, bars used to employ piano players to help keep people entertained. You’re unlikely to find someone playing Beethoven in these bars but instead will hear contemporary songs and traditional tunes. Even today, big stars such as Coldplay singer Chris Martin have been recorded playing the piano in a bar, caught on camera by People.com during a cand ..read more

Recordings can help a musician’s artistry survive long after they have died. Even in cases where pianists preserved few recorded performances, their playing and reputation can live on when the music-making in these audible documents warrants continued attention. One such artist is Josef Lhévinne, a Russian pianist also famous as a teacher whose handful of recordings continue to be revered. Although Lhévinne was celebrated in his lifetime, he wasn’t as focused on his performing career as his wife Rosina had thought he should be — in fact, she put her career aside in order to support her husband ..read more

Historical recordings can offer a window into the realms of musical interpretation of previous generations in a way that words can only suggest. While we can read evocative reviews of the playing of the great artists of earlier epochs, until we actually hear with our own ears an artist’s tone, phrasing, timing, and so on, we cannot really truly appreciate the kind of music-making that existed the past. As previous Piano Files postings have shown, pianists who trained with Liszt and Brahms play in a style quite different to what is generally heard today, as do composers themselves, from Ra ..read more

The permanence of recordings can make it easy to think that musicians are consistent in their style, but like all humans they can evolve in how they express, so it is natural that their approach to interpretation and performance would too. Especially for those who aged significantly over the course of their recording career, a maturing of their style and likely a shift in their dexterity can be observed — but this need not discount the value of either their earlier or later performances. Listening to an artist at all points in their career can be an illuminating exploration of their varied mus ..read more

Wrist Circles is one of the important piano-playing techniques. It enhances legato, phrasing (also in non-legato and staccato), scales, arpeggios, broken/rolled chords, evenness, small and big leaps, double octaves, chordal work, and more. All that, while keeping your hands free of any stress and injury — it’s just magic. Why circles? Perhaps the example of running towards a wall and instantly changing direction will give a partial explanation and reason. When we need to change direction sharply (a 180-degree turn), we are better off smoothing the turn by “hitting” the wall in a little sideway ..read more