Word: chopines
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...would argue with the fact that Chopin had an extraordinarily original sense of the sonorous capacities of the piano. Without neglecting its inferent percussive qualities, Chopin wrote melodies for the piano as if it could actually sing and sustain sound. In fact, this is precisely what the piano does least well, since every note the pianist plays begin to decay instantly. The pianist, therefore, must give the illusion of sustaining sound, and for this he must call on a variety of resources: graduation of touch, suppleness of rhythm, and of course the pedal. The pianist has to be prepared...
...Berman. As one enthusiastic undergraduate said. "He is a fantastic, incredible pianist." Students who took the second half of Music 1 last spring were privileged to hear Berman illustrating his musical ideas at the keyboard. Those in Music 154 remember his playing the Liszt "Vallee d'Obermann" or improvising Chopin etudes. They remember his legendary ability sight-read scores. But those outside the musical community may not be aware of Berman's pianistic abilities since he seems to prefer small and intimate audiences...
Asked why he thinks performing Chopin is relevant today, Mr. Berman responded, "I have a problem in that respect. Chopin's music speaks to me very deeply and I sincerely believe it can speak to others in the same way. Perhaps the proof is in the fact that people are still going to concerts in which his music figures prominently. Chopin seems to be one of the few composers whose works can satisfactorily make up an entire piano program. Naturally I am aware of the criticism of some of the criticism of some of the cognoscenti who find Chopin...
...Cookies. Never gazing hammily at the ceiling as so many romantic keyboard idols do, Ohlsson made it clear that he prefers Chopin the dramatist, without entirely sacrificing Chopin the nocturnal perfumer. Rightly so. In the E Minor Concerto, Chopin accomplished the considerable feat of turning the roulades, trills and other frills of the 19th century salon style into the stuff of major symphonic theater...
...pounder, Ohlsson is fond of pointing out that the small-boned Chopin loved nothing better than hearing a stronger pianist tear into his music. "You know," says Ohlsson, "in the U.S. we treat the mazurkas, for example, as inconsequentially as tea cookies. But the Poles don't want that kind of refinement. Mazurkas are folk music to them. What they want in them is a nice pow!" Ohlsson has the pow, and starting right now, he also has the how of a new and brightly blooming musical career...