[CAUT] Fwd: Fwd: liszt temp

[lelibin at optonline.net]

And surely, if they'd had Steinway Ds they would have exploited these pianos' resources fully and hence written different music. Knowing the limitations and advantages of historical pianos helps us understand compositional decisions, among other things. The point isn't that our or their pianos are better or worse but that they're very different.
Laurence 

----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Sturm 
Date: Friday, January 29, 2010 11:29 am
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Fwd: Fwd: liszt temp
To: caut at ptg.org

> On Jan 29, 2010, at 8:07 AM, Dennis Johnson wrote:
> 
> > I have not seen a single bit of evidence anywhere, or any 
> > suggestion, that even one of these great composers did not 
> welcome 
> > advances of the instrument. Do you not agree that given the 
> choice 
> > any one of them would jump at the modern concert Steinway? 
> > Beethoven especially, and Lizst.
> 
> 
> I think it is reasonable to suppose that they would use the 
> dominant 
> instrument, and would prefer it if they had it. But that is 
> speculation. The instrument they wrote for is the instrument 
> they had. 
> Sometimes it doesn't make so much difference, but sometimes it does.
> With Liszt, probably the biggest difference is in clarity. To 
> give 
> one example, he liked to reinterpret chords to move to strange 
> harmonic places, often by changing a single inner voice. This 
> can be 
> hard to make audible on a modern concert grand, but it "just 
> happens" 
> on a period instrument - that is, you don't have to make an 
> effort, it 
> sticks out without trying, The same thing can be said of some 
> passage 
> work, where there is what we hear as a "wash of color" on a 
> modern 
> grand, in which the individual notes disappear. On a period 
> instrument, the intricacies of figuration are more apparent.
> With Chopin, I was interested to hear a very prominent French 
> pianist, Marylene Dosse (who recently semi-retired here), tell 
> students at a Chopin masterclass that they should always 
> practice 
> pedaling with the tip of the toe, the point being that they 
> should 
> learn the technique of "half pedal." Again, it is a question of 
> clarity. With the pedal fully depressed, the modern piano has 
> too much 
> resonance and sustain, and a lot can disappear in the "mud." 
> Chopin 
> wrote for a piano with much less sustain, and considerably more 
> clarity. You can play his music well and successfully on a 
> modern 
> instrument, but learning how it sounds on his piano often 
> reveals 
> considerably more. And bringing those things out on a modern 
> instrument requires special techniques.
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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