Overview
Boris Berman, an internationally known Russian-trained concert pianist and highly respected teacher, here draws on his vast experience to explore issues of piano technique and music interpretation. Combining explanations and advice with anecdotes about his students, colleagues, and former teachers, he also provides many insights into the psychological aspects of musical performance and the teaching of music.Berman thoroughly examines such practical matters in piano playing as sound and touch, technique, pedaling, and articulation. He gives tips on choosing editions, selecting the best fingering, memorizing, and making the most efficient use of practice time. He gives equal emphasis to issues of interpretation, discussing ways to decipher the inner content of a piece of music. And he offers suggestions about how to prepare emotionally for a performance, how to confront stage anxiety, and how to adapt teaching approaches to the individual students. Informative and entertaining, this book will be welcomed by piano students, teachers, and anyone else interested in the art of piano playing.
About the Author:
Boris Berman, professor of piano at the Yale School of Music, has given concerts and master classes around the world and has many recordings to his credit.
Synopsis
Internationally known as a concert pianist and highly respected as a piano teacher, Boris Berman here offers an entertaining and informative exploration of both piano technique and music interpretation. Berman combines explanations and practical advice with anecdotes about students, colleagues, and former teachers, along the way providing many insights into the psychological aspects of performing and teaching music.
Radu Lupu
A very instructive,imaginative,and stimulating book.
Editorials
Choice
Pianists will value Berman’s stimulating and personal thoughts and will appreciate the opportunity to learn from this contemporary artist.Claude Frank
The book is neither too elementary nor too advanced for any pianist,piano teacher or piano lover. It is informative,inspiring,and entertaining.Emanuel Ax
What makes Mr. Berman’s book so persuasive and enlightening is his understanding that there is no one ‘method’ of teaching music—each relationship with a student is a process of discovery for teacher and student both.Library Journal
Readers who want to become better pianists will welcome Berman's master class. Highly recommended.Radu Lupu
A very instructive,imaginative,and stimulating book.The New Yorker
In A Pianist's Landscape, Carol Montparker quotes Martha Argerich as saying, "I love to play the piano, but I hate being a pianist." Alone onstage and performing from memory, a piano soloist probably has the loneliest, most nerve-racking job in music. Boris Berman's Notes From the Pianist's Bench offers an illuminating program of technical tips culminating in advice on what he calls the "technique of the soul," a method of consciously learning a series of emotional responses that reliably situate the performer inside the spirit of a piece. Drawing on Stanislavsky's theories of acting, Berman explains that "during the emotional high of an inspired performance a pianist should never cease listening to an objective inner monitor that guided him through hours of preparatory work."One contemporary pianist famous for listening to his inner monitor is Alfred Brendel. In his recently published conversations with Martin Meyer, Me of All People, translated from the German by Richard Stokes, Brendel recalls the enviable confidence of his early career: "I went on stage, played and did not realize what fear was." The main challenge, he says, lies in balancing fidelity to the work itself with personality and spontaneity. When things go well, "one has the impression that the work is playing itself." And, according to Charles Rosen's Piano Notes, a good performance occurs not in spite of technical trials but sometimes even because of them: "There has to be a genuine love simply of the mechanics and difficulties of playing, a physical need for contact with the keyboard, a love and a need which may be connected with a love of music but are not by any means totally coincident with it."
(Leo Carey)