Playing Piano In Russian?

But it is well  worth taking a look behind the stereotypes:  what does the Russian school  of piano really mean? Maybe we could  even pose the sacrilegious question:  does it exist at all? In fact, this very  question is often raised by those  who belong to it or would like to  belong to it. There is absolutely no doubt that young Russians still hold their own at international piano competitions. There is virtually no contest that does not have Russian artists making it into the finals at the very least. What’s more, the music cognoscenti also feel they know what it means to belong to the Russian school of piano: above all else virtuosity, robust touch, and soulful, romantic expressiveness. However, those great artists and professors who themselves are outstanding representatives of this very tradition struggle to formulate the true nature of it. Most commonly, it is not these artists who use the expression ‘Russian school of piano’ but those music teachers living abroad and wielding their origin and schools as trademarks and who wish to win over converts with the methodologies of highly successful Russian music tuition.

 If we are to look for the answer to the secret of what lies behind the centuries-old success of Russian piano playing – success which has been repeated from one generation to the next – we must recognize that we will not find in it anything that is not characteristic in one way or another of any other nation, school or artist. Immaculate technique, energetic and yet, when needed, silky touch, chord sensitivity, a high degree of formation, and deriving from all these an intensive emotional expressiveness – not one of these terms commonly used in connection with the Russian school of piano can be omitted from the toolbox of an artist of quality, irrespective of nationality or school.

Denis Matsuev ( Photo: Columbian Artist Management )

Perhaps we come somewhat closer to the real answer if we consider this question from a historical perspective and presume to discover the individuality of the Russian school of piano through a succession of great personalities and their individual influences. However surprising it may sound, the strands in this story lead all the way back to Ferenc Liszt. His three tours (taking place over the period 1842–1847) ignited something in piano playing in Russia. Shortly thereafter, performers began appearing in Russia who wittingly (as with the Rubenstein brothers) or unwittingly (like Theodor Leschetizky) started their work as performers or teachers under Liszt’s influence. Anton Rubinstein (1829–1894) performed Liszt works in concert at the age of nine, and he met him at the age of eleven; indeed they became firm friends later on. He founded the first Russian conservatory in St Petersburg in 1862, that is, more than a decade earlier than Liszt’s music academy in Pest. Polish-born Leschetizky (1830–1915) studied under Czerny in Vienna, and only started teaching in St Petersburg from 1852, at the invitation of Rubinstein. He returned to Vienna in 1878, where he worked as a highly influential teacher of piano almost until the end of his life. His students included such important pianists as Ignaz Friedman, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Mieczysław Horszowski, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Jan Paderewski, Artur Schnabel and Vasily Safonov. By this time, we can indeed reflect on what these highly accomplished musician-teachers interpreted as being the ‘Russian school’. Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Medtner and Josef Lhevinne all became students of Safonov (1852–1918). Safonov was a musician of international significance, not only as a pianist 95 but conductor too. He was succeeded by Mahler at the head of the New York Philharmonics. The next figure of key importance was Alexander Siloti (1863–1945), who studied under Anton’s brother, Nikolai Rubinstein, as well as Liszt. In turn, he taught Rachmaninov and Scriabin, and later he became an important propagator of Russian music and promoter of Russian artists all over the world. Felix Blumenfeld (1863–1931) was a contemporary and colleague of Siloti at the St Petersburg Conservatory; similarly to all those artists mentioned above Blumenfeld worked not only as a pianist but as a conductor and composer, according to the traditions of the era. He premiered Tristan in Russia and Boris Godunov in Paris. He had many top students including Vladimir Horowitz, Maria Yudina and Heinrich Neuhaus (1888– 1964). Neuhaus also studied with other professors, for example, the famous and feared virtuoso Leopold Godowsky in Berlin. In just the same way as his predecessors, he could be considered only partly the student of Russian teachers.

Neuhaus is the link to recent times. Quite a few of his students are still living today, active as performers and teachers. It would be difficult to list all those significant artists he launched on their careers; however, those more familiar to a domestic audience include Yakov Zak, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Anatoly Vedernikov, Eliso Virsaladze, Alexei Lubimov and Radu Lupu. His most important pedagogical successor and assistant over several years was Lev Naumov (1925–2005), who wrote a work entitled Under the Sign of Neuhaus about the functioning and methods of his professor and what was taught in classes. But we also have first-hand written information from Neuhaus himself in a collection of essays The Art of Piano Playing, published at the end of the 1950s. In this work he writes of his fundamental proposition concerning music and performance; some explanation may also be found here as to why the Russian musical tradition is of such enormous influence and success. His three central tenets can be summarized as follows: 1. Music must be taught in a way that, right from the first minute, the playing should stem from the meaning of the music, even with the simplest of works; 2. Good technique is built on familiarity with piano playing, that is, the pieces themselves, the specific problems, and not on the theory or exercises; 3. The most important element is the personality of the performer, and within this his/her musical creativity, creative/re-creative power: this is what has to be brought to the surface, and if this succeeds, then this should be followed as a unique guiding principle during the performance.

Musicians who are Russian, or trace their origins to Russia, still occupy a prestigious position in the line of leading international pianists. And if we compare their playing, then we have to acknowledge that Professor Neuhaus was correct: dedicated listening to the musicmaking of the plethora of totally different personalities creates a unique overall impression of the Russian school of piano that cannot truly be grasped in words alone.

János Mácsai