Art - not recommended for imitation

Frank-Thomas Mitschke - Listen to these recordings, dear students! But wait until after your exams or the competition!

Records with pianists of the so-called "Russian School" - names like Neuhaus, Goldenweiser and Igumnov come to mind, who trained whole legions of great pianists. And some of them have left us recordings that disturb us, make us sit up and take notice, swim against the tide.

Maria Yudina should be mentioned. She does not come from this tradition, but studied in St. Petersburg with Felix Blumenfeld, who also taught Horowitz. Yudina has made many recordings that trigger an "aha effect", that shed new light on a work in a previously unfamiliar way. Beethoven's op. 106 should be mentioned, the Brahms Handel Variations, which I consider unsuccessful, or Schubert's B flat major Sonata. She doesn't play the theme, she celebrates it - even slower than Richter. The world stands still at the beautiful sounds, while the audience becomes restless and wonders how she intends to keep up the tension at this extreme tempo. Yudina doesn't ask herself this, she simply doesn't do it. Where the opening theme is transformed into movement, she unrestrainedly increases the tempo and gives the movement a "con fuoco" that was initially considered impossible. Very interesting to listen to, individually - but anyone preparing for an exam or a competition should not take this as an example!

Another pianist who took the liberties he wanted was Samuel Feinberg, who trained with Goldenweiser. Anyone who has never heard his interpretation of the two volumes of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is missing a milestone in Bach interpretation. Baroque purists may call me names, and stylistically and musicologically there is certainly a lot to be said against it. But: when I got these records many years ago and simply wanted to "listen in", I didn't get away from the record player all evening with the sheet music in my hand! Fascinating, not suitable for imitation - but what imagination, what richness of tone color, what great creative power! This is the playing of someone who was not only a pianist but also a composer! At the end of the 1950s, the young Lazar Berman swept so stormily through the Douze Etudes transcendantes von Liszt that, at least from a sporting point of view, he outshone everything - everything? - that has ever dealt with this subject (Mazeppa, Eroica!).

One last comment for today is dedicated to Maria Grinberg; she studied with Igumnov, among others. Who today would think of simply rewriting a four-hand work by Schubert for two hands and recording it? What would be the point, we would ask ourselves. The answer is clear: because otherwise the recording world would be one wonderful recording poorer! I'm talking about Schubert's Fantasie in F minor D. 940, and anyone who is able to listen to Grinberg translate this Schubertian infinite sorrow into piano playing without tears welling up should check it out.

If you are interested in further excursions into pianistics or would like to talk about it, you are cordially invited to contact: frank-thomas.mitschke@kalaidos-fh.ch.