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Dear Visitor! Web Pages, dedicated to the 'Idea-Image-Technique' Method of the piano, have
come to light as natural result of my studies on the Chopin's &
Neuhaus' Methods of the piano. Articles published in the Web started to
help the pianists worldwide in 1999. Within last years, many Visitors have posted their opinions related to
content of these Pages. All the letters and emails are very worthy to me.
Many of them expressed sincere interest toward the Method and this
fact encourages me greatly. The entire studies on the Chopin’s and Neuhaus’ Methods
became the central point of my not only professional life and this is the
real fact that my views on the piano pedagogy have been changed from the top
to the bottom: true passion replaced the routine and everything gained the
completely different taste and color. Easiness, effectiveness, actual joy in
playing and teaching the piano, artistic self-realization started to be the chief
values in and of my work. Let you have a look at several samples of the opinions expressed by my
Honorable Correspondents! Maybe you would like to expose your point of view
on these Pages, too. You are sincerely Welcome! Frankly said, I have never
received any strictly critical email. However, I guess, somewhere in the
depths of the Web one probably could found some opinions of such kind as this
one, below: "This site has very little useful technical information (i. e.,
specific movements, problems and their solutions). There are a lot of
diagrams, but they are
used primarily to support the thesis that the ear guides the hands.
The part about weight and the "saw motion"
(in and out) might be of some use. The site's design aesthetic is somewhat
bizarre (not entirely negative) and the English is poor. The site consists
mostly of an interpretation of Chopin and Neuhaus's ideas, which like
Neuhaus's book is focused primarily on interpretation and musical conception.
The [Neuhaus'...!!!]
book has very little
technical information and, if I remember correctly, some of the key concepts are
wrong." This quotation comes from the Piano-Hands Site. Hmm...!
Well, besides, having any question let you feel free to
contact me at any time you might like to. Thank You Very Much!
Yours truly - Stefan K.
Hello from Los Angeles,
California! Well, first things first, please allow me to introduce myself to
you. I am a musician/pianist who have been following your Web Site for about
a year. I have read all the materials that you offer on the web, including
Neuhaus' "The Art of Playing the Piano". For many years, my attempts to
express or share with others how I feel about music/piano playing have
failed. I was often told that what I was saying was "too esoteric"
or "abstract". Hence, you can probably imagine
how thrilled I was to find you passionately say that the philosophy, beliefs,
and views that we hold in music/piano playing should be applied at all times
as long as we shall be musicians and pianists. So, Stefan, before I go on any
further with this e-mail, please allow me to say, I thank you and appreciate
you for who you are and what you do because you have not only took all my
doubts and questions in my belief in music and piano playing, but also you
have helped me to understand who I am and be very comfortable and confident
about who I am and what I do. You are truly THE BEST teacher
and fellow musician I have ever met in my life and you have my utmost respect
and admiration because of your compassion toward music and musicians and your
open heart and willingness to share your beautiful mind with us. Wow, I feel
very happy to have finally being able to express my joy and appreciation that
you have brought upon me. Do you recognize the name B*** M***?
I have introduced her to your Web Site and she has such high opinion about
you and your work, which I am sure, she has already told you in her
correspondence. Anyway, we are both dying to go to Poland and pick your brain
even more! We both have degrees in piano performance (whatever that means...),
but we definitely feel that there are so much more to music than just getting
degrees, winning competition, and securing positions at universities. (S. J. - a pianist from USA)
I have read with great interest your various pages concerning the
"Russian" piano school. To my eternal delight, I discovered
Heinrich Neuhaus' "The Art of Piano Playing." many years ago in the
NSW State Library (Australia). Ever since I have always followed up any
insights that people have related to the Neuhaus books often to my
dissatisfaction. I have no such dissatisfaction with your
discussion. Thanks and well done. To my understandings of music and the
Neuhaus book, your interpretation is excellent. As you note, you are not a native
English speaker, but that is not an issue. Your writing is done with
sufficient clarity and focus for your language to be no issue. (M. W. – a pianist
from Australia)
Thank you so much for your site,
it's so generous to you to share your knowledge and passion, I have looked so
many times to have some bits of information you gave... I am already pursuing
my lecture of your website, so rich, and trying to explore the possibilities
it gives to me.
... I can imagine that you are very
busy, that you cannot respond everybody, but, perhaps it can interest, and if
you have time, could put an article on your website in the future? Thanks again for your wonderful work! (M-C. M. – a
teacher and pianist from France)
I have been incorporating the Taubman
technique in my playing and have seen marvelous improvements. However, I still feel something is
missing. Then I suddenly came
upon your work in the Chopin's Method.
I think you are doing a wonderful job and are so masterful at
describing the process. I have
read Neuhaus' book on the Art of Piano playing and loved it
tremendously. I absolutely love
the first quote Neuhaus says in the "In Lieu of a Preface"
section. He says; " The
whole secret of talent and genius is that in the case of a person so gifted,
music LIVES a full life in his brain BEFORE he even touches a keyboard or
draws a bow across the strings".
That's it dear professor Stephan, the whole key to music learning and
appreciation. The mental aspect of idea, image and mental activity. ... Now that's why I emailed you and asked
you how does a person keep that life, vitality, motion, aliveness going when
playing a piece of music? You
have that very interesting picture
of a piano player playing something and in one picture he is thinking of the
black, lifeless, dead musical notation symbols, and the other picture shows a
real life image. This made me
think a lot. I have always been
playing the piano with the "notes" in mind. Thinking C, G, B – OK – here comes a
crescendo, etc. I have always
felt a tremendous unease and dissatisfaction with my playing, like something
was missing, and indeed, it was.
I am so excited about your work and look forward to reading more on
your web-page about this whole process. (J. H-P. - a piano teacher from
USA)
First, let me congratulate you
for all the effort you have made into the Chopin- Neuhaus Method and let me
be part of the testifiers that IT WORKS!!!!! I mean WOW!!!!!!! IT TRULY
WORKS!!!! Let me explain why: I have 2 students that actually
they are my friends and like also music and have just started to practice
piano with me .... Today, Monday I showed them what I have been reading
(this, your work) and just like magic they started to play better in no time,
the musical ideas, the same technique for itself (I practiced with the Hanon
making it more musical than technical). Also started to work with the WTC
and I just improved it a lot in no time, just figuring out what sounds come
next, what impressions I have note by note, what images i could see and all
those things that would take me more than this E-mail to describe So as an epilogue of this part I
must truly thank you fondly for creating this method if I can I'll show you
when I have my next recital how much this help me to develop my musical
skills (I. B. - a piano student from
Mexico)
I can't thank you enough for
these new explanations about piano playing. Everything seems so clear to me
now that I am jumping for joy. Because instead of all these years of
obsessive struggle, I started learning to play the piano with pleasure and
delight. Many thanks!!! I'll be in touch with you soon to give you more feedback
on the subject. I give you my warmest regards As always - (P. N. - a piano student from Canada)
Bravo! Your articles about piano
playing are wonderful. IT IS NOT MECHANICAL! There are so many players who
think that focusing on mechanics are all that matters... There is local
teacher C. T. (...) who I confided with often and used to think he was so
right. He presented several arguments with you on Piano_chat and I
used to tell him how right he was and how wrong you were. Now I realize after further study
with a student of Artur Schnabel that you were right all along. I feel so stupid because I now
realize I had a lot of growing up to do and was never interested in being a
musician until the last few months. Here is the link http://www.pianoeu.com/russianpiano.html (K. D. - a piano student from USA)
I found your take on Chopin's Method very
interesting, these techniques are useful and surprisingly natural [in]
feeling and help my playing, especially (ironically) Chopin's pieces. I was
wondering if it is possible to acquire Chopin's method of piano on a public
level, for example myself. I live in Scotland, and wouldn't know where to
look for it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. (A. O' B. - a piano student [ ? ] from Scotland)
Hey! Thanks so much for all your
help!!! I played the Liebestraum for performance today... The applause
and cheers were SUPER loud... They were all touched by the intensity of the
piece. The Prof say I play like a musical God... lol ... Thanks
really... My friends say they
feel like melting when i play... Thanks Thanks Thanks!!! ... oh yeah... I
work out on the octave advices u gave me... (your technique resembles Dorothy
Taubman's!!!!) (N. J. - a piano student from Singapore)
I'm now in my last year in college and studying the Schumann Concerto.
I'm about to memorize it this month for the jury exams next month. I'm
listening to many recordings of it, my favorite one is of Van Cliburn. Any
other suggestions? I'm also doing 4 Scarlatti Sonatas, a major Philippino
work, and about to learn a Ginastera's Sonata and his dances. I still frequently visit your site and I surely am learning a lot of
things... (F. B. - piano student from Manila, Philippines)
Your Web-site is of a great value in helping people understand the
vital role of the resonance phenomena for the immortality of our souls. The
lack of ability to resonate means disintegration and death. This is the only
ability we need to profoundly understand when alive. Unfortunately, most of
us die without being aware of this ability beyond its unconscious physical
manifestation in the functions of our bodies. One's soul can continue its eternal journey ONLY if it knows how to
RESONATE. (V. D., Ph. D. - a scientist from Australia)
Dear Mr. Kutrzeba, a young friend
of mine, a pianist from Japan in search of the best way to teach young
students, about music and piano, was recently sharing her enthusiasm about
having found you and your approach to music teaching. I believe you will hear
from her at some point. I am not a musician in the sense that I have never
acquired musical skills, but in my soul, it is a different story.
Nevertheless, the reason for my message is to inquire whether you may know of
some overall learning/teaching theories that may use the same principles
developed in your approach for music teaching. I would like to apply it into
the language teaching. I believe that music and language are very similar in
the sense they are both art. ... I am from France, and currently
work as an English tutor with international students. I have a great love for
music, and in the 'classical' repertoire, Mozart particularly. I am lucky to
meet many young musicians, some of them like Shoko, constantly searching for
ways to make the learning of music a rich journey. Sincerely, etc, etc. (A. L. - a teacher from France)
Having been a student of the Taubman technique (and still studying) I
have to admit that there is a huge emphasis on the physiological aspects of
playing the piano (ie: getting around the keyboard, moving in and out,
forearm rotation, and so on).
However, can you believe that after countless lessons (2 years) on the
Taubman technique I have not had one instructor talk to me about anticipative
inner hearing, active fantasy, imagination, and so on. It
has been entirely on the PHYSICAL aspects of playing the piano. I must confess that after my most
recent lesson I found myself thinking, "When is someone going to teach
me how to activate my inner hearing? Who is going to help me develop an
artistic fantasy, and imagination?" I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated I felt. This scientific approach to playing
the piano has made the Taubman technique a means to an end, technique in a
vacuum, which does not stand up (as Neuhaus states in his book). I had the
pleasure of reading an excerpt from a book called "Great Pianists Speak
for themselves" and in it the author interviews all the greats,
Horowitz, Rubinstein, Gould and Gilels.
I was absolutely stunned at what Gilels said about his
fantasy/imagination. He said
that when he plays a piece of music, his imagination is so powerful that he
actually FEELS like he is in the place where he is thinking of while he
plays. He hears the sounds, can smell all the smells, feels the touch of the
objects in his mind. It is so
VIVID, so intense, so real that he can hardly believe he is that deep into an
active fantasy. And when you hear
the way Gilels played, you are left breathless. He was such a fantastic artist, and now we know his
secret. (J. H-P. – a piano teacher from USA)
Dear Stefan, My family and I wish to send our most grateful thanks for the nice
days in Parkano. We will never forget what you have done for us. The trip
home went safely. This week we have concerts every day at my school so I am
coming home very late every day, there were 14 working hours every day! I have thought about your comments on my playing and I am so grateful
that you have opened up my eyes and ears for what I am actually doing... You are right about my technique: it does really not sound well.
Although I am not really sure how to make it disappear and I will have to
wait for the time at the college of music in M. to see what they say too. But
I trust you very much since your playing sound wonderful, better than many
concert pianists I have heard (So, your are only a teacher???). The pupils
that you showed me also played well, so Stefan, you know what you are doing!!
Don't forget that you are still invited to us here in Sweden as well
as in Italy, if you wish to make a visit after the summer we would be happy. Best regards, D. with Parents (D. S. – a student of the piano from Sweden)
I play the piano solely for pleasure; I am not a professional. Each
day I play the piano for about two hours and I listen to the great composers
on my stereo much more than that. I have been to Helsinki and Jyvaskylä in
Finland, they are beautiful cities. I will peruse Chopin's work and subsequently give you my thoughts on
it. I am an Olympic level athlete and am quite familiar with the Zone.
Your paper on the Methode of Chopin was really fascinating and I am starting
to work on the touché techniques that you described. From what I can tell, Chopin and Rachmaninoff emphasized touch more
than the other eminent composers did. Rachmaninoff's music seems much more
powerful and compelling than Chopin's does. I would like to hear your
thoughts. Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon. (R. R. - a piano hobbyist from USA)
I am aware of Chopin's Method (it is also a shame he did not live long
enough to get more of his thoughts on teaching down of paper) but I have
visited your excellent site with much interest, including your Method page.
There is much thought provoking information on all of your website, and I am
interested with all you have to say. My site is still growing from it's
initial 'personal' information, and as I get time to work on it more will be
added. Unfortunately, life as a professional pianist doesn't allow a lot of
time for this, but I make time, and I always have time for Chopin... Please visit my site again during the next few weeks and I will have
something I believe you will be interested to read (if you haven't already
seen my small Chopin page): Frederick Chopin - The mind behind the music.
Like you I have studies for many years and I feel I have 'something to say'
and look forward to sharing it with yourself, and the World. I would be very pleased to place a link from my site to yours. Maybe
you would like to link up to, say my Thesis 'Frederick Chopin - The mind
behind the music' if you think it would be suitable in some way to your site. Thanks once again, Your sincerely, PS. I was SO pleased to see your quote 'Comparisons are odious'! Hear,
hear!! (A. S. - concert pianist and teacher of the piano from Great Britain)
Fortunately throughout my life I have received the correct guidance
from my teachers, the first of whom was actually a professional violinist
with great insight into piano playing - who paid absolute attention to the
relative passivity of the arms (and wrists). Later at the Royal Academy of
Music in London I was fortunate to have the Senior Piano Professor, Guy
Jonson, who had worked with Tobias Matthay, Rachmaninov and Cortot. I
continue to work with him to this day - and also Prof. Peter Feuchtwanger,
who you no doubt know from the EPTA. From 1972-1976 I worked with Louis
Kentner, who shared the views of my first teacher, Fania Schlaen. I had previously 'taught myself' and at my first lesson with her had
the audacity to attempt the last movement of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano
Concerto! She was both shocked and dismayed...! Naturally I am familiar with
Prof. Eigeldinger's work and I am privileged to have him as a supporter of my
work on Chopin. Apart from concerts and recordings I enjoy working with piano
students, giving lecture-recitals - and have recently edited my first
publication of Chopin. I have to confess that I have not really considered
the teaching principles of Neuhaus in connection with Chopin. Who of Neuhaus'
pupils would I know Stefan? I would very much welcome your comments on my performances of Chopin.
If you would like to receive one of the CD's from my series 'The Original
Chopin', or one of my articles on Chopin Interpretation, I would be very
pleased to send them to you. You may imagine that I have plenty to say on how Chopin's compositions
are interpreted - and often question the fact that many pianists' techniques
are not conducive to good Chopin-playing, quite apart from the problems of
textual adherence..... With kind regards, (A. L. - concert pianist from Great Britain)
It gave me great pleasure to get your Email and all the information
about you and everything you do and you represent. At this one moment I am
extremely busy, because we are running the 5th. International Audio-Video
Piano Competition and in two weeks I will be presenting my 16th concert at
Carnegie Hall, but after the concert, which is February 11, I will like very
much to correspond with you. I would like also, if you agree, to have our site connected to yours.
I know very well all the names of teachers you mention and it would be of
GREAT interest for pianists of every place to get in touch with you and you
have to offer. Hoping to have a life time relationship with you and your knowledge, I
am, Sincerely, (A-M. T-B., Ph. D., DMA - concert pianist and teacher of the piano
from USA)
I am not sure whether I could truly understand your first step about
Chopin's method or not. Maybe I did mistakes in that. But your reply showed
me a new way for my learning and playing. Thank you very much. Somebody told me the virtuoso skill is the most important. I just have
a question: According Chopin's method, E. Fisher or G. Cziffra is a better
"Chopin's methodist"? Anyway I agree they are all the best. Please
tell me your opinion. Thank you in advance. (C. S. - piano hobbyist from China)
After these years of thinking about and experimenting with your piano
method, and trying out with my students, I believe your piano method is the
most effective. I have never heard anyone else produce such kind of
"alive" sounds as yours, even from the terrible upright piano
besides the Bechstein piano in "Sala [room, class] 20" (after the
3rd International Piano Workshop in Olsztyn). (XM - from Singapore; probably the most talented young pianist I
have ever met) If you might like to write me, maybe...? Welcome! Have a nice time with the piano! – Stefan K.
© Graphics Actualized: 2009-01-04 |
