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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
I tried to play the Mephisto Waltz in the so-called French style, and realized that it is indeed possible to play it like that too. Voila! it is there, gentle, elegant and flowing.
Now I have a month to get used to this new style.
Easy does it! Doucement! Gentle and elegant is not French style, it is music style! Show me where one plays the piano rough and clumsy!
Everyone is talking about French style, but does it really exist? A way to play, a sound? Don't be so sure.
Generally one doesn't speak of a French style, but of a French school, which has romm for every "style".
Take the opportunity when you are in Paris and in the midst of French players to talk with them. It is not by watching or listening to performances that you are going to penetrate this giant musical heritage.
We're saying much the same thing but with slightly different wording. Nobody is saying it's uniform within France or among the French, nor that others don't do it, nor that calling it "French" is exactly an apt way to put it. It's just a phrase, and it does have some relevance.
Sorry for going OT again, but while I was reading the article provided by landorrano, this line caught my attention in the Saint-Saens section: "works for two pianos fascinated him throughout his life, leading him to transcribe for two pianos both Chopin's Sonata in B-flat minor and the Liszt Sonata." Wait, there is a two piano version of Chopin 2 and Liszt sonata? So I searched on youtube for both but could only find the Chopin sonata. Here it is:
Honestly, I don't see the point of playing it on two pianos when you could just play it on one piano since most of it sounds the same. Transcribing orchestral works to piano makes sense to me, but this I'm not sure why Saint-Saens would do this. I guess he had some time in his hands and did this just because he can?
.....Honestly, I don't see the point of playing it on two pianos when you could just play it on one piano since most of it sounds the same. Transcribing orchestral works to piano makes sense to me, but this I'm not sure why Saint-Saens would do this. I guess he had some time in his hands and did this just because he can?
Nice job noticing about those 2-piano pieces, and great get in finding this video.
That's a great question as to why Saint-Saens (or anyone) would think of doing such a thing. I agree that there certainly wouldn't have seemed to be any "need." But I think I have a good guess as to the answer.
FUN. It's just fun to play stuff with someone on another piano, even stuff that doesn't particularly benefit from the extra piano. It's just fun.
How I know this: Because I've done it with a couple of friends. We never planned it; it was just that if we found ourselves in a room with 2 pianos, we'd sometimes both sit down and try to play together whatever pieces any of us were working on. Sometimes we'd just both play the piece 'as written' (more or less, because usually only one of us really knew the piece), sometimes we'd fool around with it -- like, adding stuff or playing one hand an octave lower or higher. It was fun.
And I have no trouble imagining Saint-Saens being into something like that. I don't know much about his story, but I have the impression that among the top-level composers, he was among the least "driven" -- yeah, he did lots and lots of stuff, but he wasn't preoccupied with doing "great" things; he did what he felt like, and he liked fun.
I think Saint-Saëns is a fine example of the French musical sensibility -- refined, tasteful, balanced, and eschewing excess, including rubato and dramatic or emotional outbursts. His piano roll recording of his Rhapsodie d'Auvergne is full of virtuosity and verve, including declamatory passages with ff octaves and chords jumping around, but remains always, well, French.
Before anyone asks, no, I don't think it's on YouTube (though an abridged acoustic recording of S-S is). Various labels have released CDs of the S-S piano rolls of the years, including Dal Segno Records.
FUN. It's just fun to play stuff with someone on another piano, even stuff that doesn't particularly benefit from the extra piano. It's just fun.
I guess fun is a good reason enough to justify this. Who doesn't like fun? Your two-piano story also reminds me.. when I was a little kid, my friend and I sometimes sat together on a piano and 'sight-read' mozart sonatas - one person would play the left hand part and the other would play the right hand. I remember having so much fun! Although it's not the same thing as what you did, I think I get it now. You don't really need a point in having fun.
Originally Posted by landorrano
Oh come on, you can do better than that.
I think I was too lazy to try and hoping someone else would come up with a good answer (which Mark_C did)
.....Your two-piano story also reminds me.. when I was a little kid, my friend and I sometimes sat together on a piano and 'sight-read' mozart sonatas - one person would play the left hand part and the other would play the right hand. I remember having so much fun! Although it's not the same thing as what you did, I think I get it now. You don't really need a point in having fun.....
Yup -- you got it. And really that's pretty much exactly the same thing -- it's fun just doing it together, even if there's no artistic reason or need for it. I'd bet a few nickels that that's what led Saint-Saens to do those arrangements.
P.S. If you find an authoritative answer and it's different from mine, I will gladly send you a few nickels. Provided of course that you post a valid mailing address.
From what I heard, there were 7 semi-finalists, 8 quarter-finalists. Out of the 8 quarter-finalists, 3 made into semi-final for a total of 10 semi-finalists.
Let's see if I can find out anything from their phone line......
Yes.....but we seem to be a day too late to find out who the semi-finalists were. (They never announce the quarter-finalists on the phone line, just semi-finalists and finalists.) The current message only lists the finalists. It sounds like neither of our guys made it (I can't be totally sure because the message is in French) but hopefully one or both got past the 1st round, which in itself would be a terrific accomplishment.
I don't recognize the names of any of the finalists (there are 6), but none of them sound like either of our guys. There are 2 finalists each from Canada and France, one from Germany and one from Japan.
Question for LA: Do you know anything about who made the quarter- or semi-finals?
I think the best way to play a piece, especially in an amateur competition, is in the way the pianist finds it most convincing. Trying to play a work in a style, French or otherwise (if there is such a thing), just to perhaps please the judges seems like it's not being true to oneself.
Is there some big money award for this competition? If not, why should there be a big need to win?
Are the judges heavily biased towards playing a certain way or are they hopefully more open minded and looking for a convincing performance?
My only comment on the OP's Youtube Mephisto Waltz performance is that the tempo for the introduction seemed quite a bit faster than I've heard most of the time. It almost seemed to be running away. Edit: I just listened to Horowitz, Rubinstein, Richter and Kapell. Horowitz and Rubinstein were definitely slower, the other two were close and Kapell might have been faster.
In the French style. LOL. Gosh, I just keep finding more and more to keep me amused here at PW...it's great.
"And if we look at the works of J.S. Bach — a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity... -Debussy
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