I wish this translated to tennis. Unfortunately, I can't slow down gravity.

This is correct but one needs to play pn 5 pianos in 5 different locations to prevent blackouts.

I love the advice of "mind first". Cause many people do slow practice completely mindlessly, making it a pure waste of time. Instead it should be ever so focused... I believe that really knowing what you're doing during practice time allows you to "get lost in it" while you actually perform...

good to know, and good story! i am obsessed with that piece, and i feel like it's soooo very subjective.

Were you guys on cahoots about releasing pianist's experience of competition videos together? Or was it all a Rachel Breen idea? 😂

@@cesardiezvdefinitely all Rachel Breen’s idea 🤞

@@plvsbpb 🤣 Break a leg!

🤭

Why each day has such a varied number of contestants? Surely they should be the same number per day?

@@able763 I just listed the times for the pianists seen in this video! Check our bachauer.com for the schedule for all 32 competitors. It’s 16 pianists per day the first two days (Quarterfinals I), then 8 per day the following four days (Quarterfinals II).

@@benlawdy oic! thanks for the clarification, Ben. great work you're doing.

That would be fun. Maybe good for a short. But also, I want to go back in time and interview Prokofiev and ask what on earth he was thinking when he wrote that bizarre figuration.

The trick I use is on the way up, play the first 3 sixteenth notes with the left hand, then play the next 6 using the right hand with the fingering 1-2-34-1-2-34, then play the top note with the left hand (and the same in reverse order on the way down).

@@benlawdy Indeed. I suspect he was playing a joke on all the pianists to follow, especially those dedicated to following the score precisely.

@@ericyjleepiano Thank you so much, Eric--this sounds like it would work very well. I am grateful to you!

​@@ericyjleepianohm pretty clever fingering

That's true - and the way TianYi Li performs/practices Rachmaninoff in this video is all about making the music transparent (and not "blurry") to listeners. But also there's something built in to Classical-era music in which its effectiveness as a piece of music depends on aspects of phrasing and clarity and balance where there's very little margin for error. It's more explicitly "rational" music, and there may only be a few valid "reasons" for a performance's success. Whereas sensuous/emotional aspect of Russian romantic music allows more room for differences of expression, timing, layering, balance, and yes clarity. It's not *essential* to the music's impact that you finish your phrases in just this or that way, or that absolutely every note is heard and registered in a given passage. For better or worse, there are notes that can be pedaled over in passagework that won't dramatically impact your listening experience, even as a perceptive listener. And that's just almost never true in Haydn/Mozart.

Because the classical repertoire is more revealing. You can play tons of wrong notes in Rach BUT if you do it with a lot of passion and love for the piece , the wrong notes don’t matter so much. It ‘s harder to say something with a few notes. It’s kind of more succinct.

​​@@benlawdy I LOVE the fact you took the time to write this amazing response. Thanks for caring about your fans! ❤

Good technique should cover most of that. Also, although most people don't dare to say it, I doubt how many of these pianists are actually honest about the hours they practice effectively. There are limits to the human brain and body and a person shouldn't be able to do 5+ hours of effective work in a day, our brains simply can't handle that. I do believe that some of them may be exaggerating their hours or simply lie. The 4/5 hours should be enough for a day was the only fully believable one to me

@@milessteenvoorden2832 Brains can't but a lot of the practice is spent just moving the hands and getting the muscles used to that particular movement.

@@milessteenvoorden2832 It goes both ways, actually. You are absolutely correct - for the brain/body/hand's effective conscious connection - 5 hours a day is absolutely enough and sufficient. But... For some pianists (or violinists, flutists etc.) going through the movements themselves (so called "muscle memory" - although I argue that) is why they may extend practice time, but is that effective ? Some passages (Rachmaninov 3rd or Brahms D-Maj) require hours and hours of slow note-by-note practice if you wanna get it into your brain completely, (and also are Chopin's Op.10 2nd and double thirds from Op.25). But yeah - anything over 4-5- hours a day can be counterproductive, and with that I absolutely agree.

Thank you! Yes, it's in a home she was visiting in Palm Springs.

My Bösendorfer is like that one! I’m so lucky!❤

In good time. And thank you!

Working on it!

What’s interesting is that the competitors don’t feel this way, and the work they’re putting into it (as seen in this video) is only incidentally related to the fact that they’re preparing for a competition.

It’s one of a few vintage Bosendorfer made for the 1958 Brussels worlds fair. This one is in a home in Palm Springs where Angie was visiting.

Lixin says it. Keep watching :)

One of the great performances of anything, ever. She's still technically "cheating" though. It's not her... it's Prokofiev's bizarre notation. It's just not something any human hand could do precisely while preserving the power and whip-action you need there. Another comment thinks it might be a joke he's playing on us pianists... maybe that's true!

@@benlawdy Okay, I understand where you're coming from. And yeah -- maybe it was Prokofiev playing a joke. Those wacky Soviets! (Ha ha.) BTW, where in the piece is the specific notation you referred to? Could you reference the aforementioned Argerich performance and tell me where it occurs? You've made me curious.

​@@Ken5244idk the time stamp, but there are some notes for the LH in the 3rd movement that she plays with the RH, in the upwards arpeggios near the end part.

She mentioned before I started recording that it was a special instrument made for the world’s fair (I’m not sure which world’s fair) and now resides in a home in Palm Springs. I’ll dig deeper and find out more.

@@benlawdy 👀

There’s another commenter who knows better if you look through. It was one of a few Bosendorfers made for a mid century world’s fare

Almost all pianists are in pain and/or working through varying degrees of injury. It’s kind of a problem that nobody likes to talk about (that’s a whole other video). As for neighbors, you hope they’re nice (but also pianists often have an electric keyboard for after hours practice).

@@benlawdy A video on dealing with injuries, avoiding them, and staying healthy, mentally as well, would be a real good watch.

⁠@@benlawdyplease make a video about injury!

The people have spoken! It’s amazing to me how many top pianists deal with injury, but it remains a taboo subject. Pianists don’t want to show weakness, and they think it reflects poorly on their professionalism. So yeah, all the more reason to make a video about it!

прикинь, всем пофиг!

I suppose if these other things are more important, you're right. But it makes me sad to think that maybe there were ways of playing where fast runs weren't on the table and you could have built your musicality on simpler music while enjoying the feeling every minute. Of course if the goal was to be a performer, well, that's maybe why there are more important things now.😊

Yeah, I'd really have to think twice about that. Like, "What the hell am I doing?" 🙂

You can’t live your life in fear

@@bw2082 u don't have to... u can just avoid certain potentially dangerous acivities which could jeopardize your profession :)

Some might say that practicing the piano might be especially hazardous for a rock climber ;)

Like tennis

Apt analogy!

Yes, although if you’re an aspiring concert pianist that means you either also have to work to make a living and/or are in school. Several of the ones in this video teach students during the day and have other performances/gigs to prepare for. And even if practicing the piano was their whole day job, it’s an extremely taxing physical and mental activity - absolutely draining. No offense to office jobs (which I’ve worked too), but it does not compare!

Fair

@@benlawdy I second this. I am a musician and have also worked in a 9-5 office environment. 8 hours doing both there is no comparison in my experience. We musicians must NEVER go on autopilot during practice, we must be focused and fully conscious about every little thing we do, so we instil correct habits, movements, fingerings and don’t accidentally train ourselves to do the wrong thing. Plus we are learning complex new repertoire almost all the time. Most people in typical 9-5 jobs have periods of time throughout the day where they can go on autopilot to some degree, especially in office jobs with certain repetitive and habitual tasks and in stuff like business meetings where they have to turn up but only be fully present and participating in a small part. I remember many times where I was on shift scrolling on my phone for long periods of time because I literally had nothing else to do/couldn’t do anymore until someone else had done a certain task. Plus if they’re white collar jobs, they aren’t physically active or moving most of the time. We musicians are moving all the time, especially in virtuosic pieces that require a lot of stamina. Physically and mentally, I am WAYYY more drained having done just 4 hours of intense deliberate practice than I often am at the end of a regular 8 hour office shift. Of course, playing is a lot more rewarding than working in an office but it’s still very resource depleting.

People realize it, but musical institutions started specializing in the 19th century and it only intensified in the 20th. This required professional pianists to spend the majority of their time keeping up with the ever-expanding repertoire, orchestras/instrumentalists to play their part in a larger role full time, composers to write for these different instruments and ensembles full time, and so on. They all assumed different roles. Improvisation became a lost art to the classical world when there stopped being as many courtly and religious musicians (except organists, who remain good improvisers because it’s part of their occupational training). Improvising eventually became the domain of jazz musicians, and so on. There are musicians who are trying to resurrect historical improvisation and build curricula around it (Noam Sivan, John Mortensen, the partimento folks, and many others). but the reason it’s not part of mainstream conservatory training is partly because our teachers can’t do it so well either - they’re most qualified to teach the great repertoire. So it’s exciting to see that actually starting to change, and as it does - we’ll start seeing more competitions that can reasonably require more musicianship skills to be displayed than just delivering performances of old music. Having said that, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that improvisation is the only place to find your voice as a musician. It can be, but the flip side is: you can learn to improvise in a very derivative way - in fact you have to start with models, so ‘finding your voice’ requires a lot of practice and listening and so on. But it’s not a given for everyone who improvises. Meanwhile, great interpreters of composed music (which I regularly profile on this channel) prove that there’s plenty of room to find your voice in realizing old masterworks in performance. It’s subtle for sure, and less room for original/radical forms of creativity (unless you’re Glenn Gould, but that’s also another video). But if you fall in love with the music and learn to listen to the differences between different interpreters, you’d find it’s a great art unto itself. (I still would advocate for more composition and improvisation in music education, but there’s room for all of the above: how about more and better music education in general, in all its variety?)

@@benlawdy Well, I can't argue with anything you said. Your points about finding your voice are solid. Perhaps, it need not be quite so formal... Maybe an encouragement to keep a musical journal by teachers and institutions. Just a notebook with the grand staff and empty pages. And occasionally discuss the musical ideas you may have written. As far as Glenn Gould goes, I do like him. Ironically, I'm probably split 70/30 on his interpretations. But he does bring the philosophical component pretty forcefully. There are many stories of composers interpreting their own compositions in wildy different ways. How elastic is a great piece of music? And how did we actually arrive at the standard interpretations that are taught? There are no recordings of the great ones, only word of mouth and memories. Thanks for your time, love the channel.

Not every theatrical writer is an actor and not every great actor becomes greater if they write a theatrical piece. Two different, though related, kinds of art. I agree though that improvisation (even in different styles) should be part of a concert pianist's education... but there is already so much to learn and so many aspects to work on, every day... and such a vast repertoire!

My teacher is an improviser. Classically trained, he had to bust norms. But he did study composition as well as performance in college. I'm happy to be benefiting from his unusual journey.