How do you use DVDs and YouTube videos of historical pianists in your teaching?

 

A few years ago I asked piano majors in a piano pedagogy class to name some twentieth-century pianists. Elton John and Liberace were mentioned, but few classical pianists were identified. I later did a presentation to the group on historical pianists, beginning with Ludwig van Beethoven, his student Carl Czerny, and his two nineteenth-century students Theodor Leschetizky and Franz Liszt, the teachers of many great twentieth-century pianists. I came to the realization that piano students are not going to know of this legacy or about other great pianists unless we as teachers make an effort to inform them.

For the past several years I have given my students a CD of piano music played by a well-known artist as a Christmas gift. I also encourage them to listen to performances— live, on CDs, and on YouTube—of both music they are playing and other classical piano repertoire. I always ask them to name the performer, and I suggest pianists, and at times specific YouTube videos, for them to watch. Gradually they are becoming more aware of legendary pianists while also learning more of the great piano literature. This is how Jerry Wong educates his students about historical pianists. Below you'll find recommendations on using online performance videos, and links to videos mentioned in the print article

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Teaching tradition

by Jerry Wong

Links and notes on the videos mentioned in the print article:

Arthur Rubinstein plays Chopin’s Barcarolle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNcb3inSg2I
Often considered a model of Chopin playing, Rubinstein performs this work with elegance, poetry, and unmannered approach. The music speaks directly through his pure, golden tone and subtle rubato. Note also, his impeccable posture and his physically natural demeanor at the piano.

Emil Gilels plays Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G Minor, Opus 23 No. 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXU7I_Yyi2Y
This popular work springs to life under the spell of Gilels’ masterful technique and charismatic persona. In this gripping performance, Gilels contrasts the articulate, martial elements as they are juxtaposed against soaring lyricism.

Emil Gilels plays Brahms’ Ballades, Opus 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6pHawY2zJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jXrQW9Begs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOGYVcje82I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly1MOvp2lAw&feature=related
Gilels shows all of the qualities of Brahms’ writing with depth and the utmost artistry. Students should make note of his voicing, sensitivity to harmonic colors, and his warm, yet penetrating tone.

Artur Benedetti Michelangeli plays Debussy’s La Fille aux cheveux de lin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MswHKA4dako
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair, a work that is often played carelessly because of its brevity and accessibility, is performed by Michelangeli with a deeply personalized and individual interpretation. I would recommend this performance for the student who is having difficulty finding the appropriate sense of nostalgia in this work.

Using YouTube videos in your teaching

Those who have embarked on graduate study in music always have stories about the often-dreaded but required course titled, quite simply: “Bibliography.” This irreplaceable class covers the ins and outs of research methods, and the various forms of correct citation. I recall my own “Bibliography 101” and shudder to think how much the class has changed since the giant boom of internet information. Google, Wikipedia, Groves Online, not to mention independent blogs and personal, yet professionally generated websites, are now readily available and plentiful. “Um, excuse me, professor…how do I cite these in my paper, and (giggle) are they legitimate sources?”

YouTube is no different than any of these other informational websites in that, though there are many advantages offered to budding musicians, there are just as many pitfalls. Entering “Beethoven Pathetique Sonata” into YouTube brings up a dozen or so performances by pianists like Horowitz, Gould, Richter, Schnabel, and the recently deceased Earl Wild. Following all these legendary artists, we immediately find entries of young students who have won prizes in local competitions, and adult amateurs taking pleasure in the combination of a home recording device and a piano in the living room.  Well, what is wrong with these slightly less sophisticated online postings, you might ask? Absolutely nothing! We can all learn from each other, but the aspiring pianist might appreciate some guidelines for how best to use and enjoy YouTube.

To begin, I would ask your students to engage YouTube primarily for video footage, not as a substitute for CDs or worse, live performance. Be sure to listen and watch with a full screen and attach a good pair of speakers to your computer. When watching video footage on YouTube, make pedagogical observations. How does the artist sit? What does the hand position look like? What makes this performance so charismatic and engaging? One might even take note of appropriate concert attire. The days of getting to know the names of major pianists by sifting through a card catalog are gone, but students should do a bit of research on the pianists who capture their imagination. What does Wikipedia have to say about this or that particular artist? How about the International Who’s Who in Music? The Art of Piano: Its Performers, Literature, and Recordings by David Dubal is a tremendous resource. One can coordinate Dubal’s connections between certain performers and composers (say Horowitz and Scriabin for instance) with some research on YouTube.

Living pianists

I am still an old-fashioned traditionalist when it comes to the argument of classroom learning versus the online experience (“distance education” is the politically correct term in academia these days), so I suggest spending most of your YouTube time viewing concerts of pianists who are no longer living. Go ahead and splurge on a concert ticket for those who are still with us! Of course, some living, and already legendary pianists, may not appear frequently on your local concert series. Some clips of living pianists whom your students may not have had the fortune to hear in live performance are available on YouTube:

Murray Perahia playing the last movement of Mozart’s Concerto K. 467 with James Levine and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Salzburg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnMKeShFOd0
Perahia alternates seamlessly between lyrical charm and joyful buoyancy. Few performances capture the unbridled enthusiasm of a Mozart finale movement like this one.

Krystian Zimerman plays Schubert’s Impromptus Opus 90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZm3JbzFzrQ
These pieces are a major staple of the teaching literature. Here, students can witness Zimerman’s artful elegance and the even clarity of his right hand passage work, as they enjoy hearing and seeing one of the most sought-after modern day pianists.

Martha Argerich plays Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto with Riccardo Chailly and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzeXtWjwhNM
In recent seasons, Argerich’s appearances in the States have become less frequent. I heard her live in Carnegie Hall in the late nineties and can attest to the electricity and vibrancy of her performances. Students who have not heard her live must indulge in an Argerich performance! In Rachmaninoff’s war-horse Third Concerto, her playing is as colorful and poetic as it is brimming with dazzling virtuosity and bravura.

Andras Schiff plays Bach’s Capriccio, On the Departure of a Beloved Brother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoMZTzhlPmc
A professor of a major U.S. conservatory once told me that in hundreds of entrance auditions, one young pianist after another would play his or her obligatory Bach Prelude and Fugue in a style highly imitative of Glenn Gould. Serious budding pianists need to explore a variety of interpretations of major composers.  Schiff offers expressive and stylistically informed playing of Bach that differs greatly from Gould.

 

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