Schools of Influence
'What is the Russian sound, or French style in piano playing? What differentiates a pianist who was taught in the English piano tradition from one who studied in Germany?
The history of piano playing is built from a large network of piano “dynasties”, which reflects a wide variety of approaches to technique and interpretation. Many of the significant pianists and pianist-teachers of the 19th and 20th centuries passed their knowledge and skills to subsequent generations. In turn, those younger players taught the next generation and so a pedagogical and pianistic lineage was established, often with distinct national characteristics. With obstacles to swift and easy communication between countries, coupled with isolationist attitudes, local pedagogical and pianistic practices became the rule in certain places, such as Russia, and these practices became more clearly differentiated between different places or “schools” of piano technique.
Until fairly recently, it was possible to differentiate between these national schools of piano playing. They each emphasised different approaches and connections to piano technique, historical tradition, and artistic and musical ideas, and displayed different areas of strength in the standard repertoire.
The Russian Piano School
The Russian music education system has always been rather shrouded in mythology and outsiders have tended to regard the Russian approach as mechanical, with an extreme emphasis on highly-honed technique over musicianship. Critics of the Russian School point to an emphasis on power in playing, which can be overwhelming, and lacking in light and shade, and an undue focus on producing competition winners, which is of course good for national prestige.
Kissin plays Rachmaninoff
In fact, the Russian School is notable for its full orchestral, projected sound, physicality in playing (an emphasis on use of the arms which drag the hands up and down the keyboard) and the ability to focus talent from a very young age (the result of a national network of specialist state music schools where students learn the rudiments of music in detail). The great pianist-teachers such as A. B. Goldenweiser and Heinrich Neuhaus sought to discover and encourage these characteristics in their pupils, and the Russian Piano School has produced many outstanding pianists including Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Richter, Gilels, Ashkenazy, Leonskaja and Pletnev – all musicians who display prodigious and immaculate technique, passion, dramatic power, intense emotional expressiveness and physical vitality in their playing.'>>>
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