From Mozart’s letters, one learns something about his own manner of
playing the piano:
“Herr Stein sees and hears that I am more of a player than Beecke—that
without making grimaces of any kind I play so expressively that,
according to his own confession, no one shows off his pianoforte as well
as I. That I always remain strictly in time surprises everyone; they
cannot understand that the left hand should not in the least be
concerned in a _tempo rubato_. When they play, the left hand always
follows” (1777).
About Nannette Stein’s playing: “She sits opposite the treble instead of
in the middle of the instrument, so that there may be greater
opportunities for swaying about and making grimaces. Then she rolls up
her eyes and smirks. If a passage occurs twice, it is played slower the
second time; if three times, still slower. When a passage comes, up goes
the arm, and, if there is to be an emphasis it must come from the arm,
heavily and clumsily, not from the fingers. But the best of all is that
when there comes a passage (which ought to flow like oil) in which there
necessarily occurs a change of fingers, there is no need of taking care:
when the time comes you stop, lift the hand and nonchalantly begin
again. This helps one the better to catch a false note, and the effect
is frequently curious” (1777). Nannette was then eight years old.
At Aurnhammer’s: “The young woman is a fright, but she plays
ravishingly, though she lacks the true singing style in her _cantabile_;
she is too jerky” (1781).
“Whenever I played for him [Richter, a pianist], he looked immovably at
my fingers, and one day he said, ‘My God! how I am obliged to torment
myself and sweat, and yet without obtaining applause; and for you, my
friend, it is mere play!’ ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘I had to labor once in order
not to show labor now’” (1784).
“It is much easier to play rapidly than slowly; you can drop a few notes
in passages without anyone noticing it. But is it beautiful? At such
speed you can use the hands indiscriminately; but is that beautiful?”
(1778.)
“Give me the best clavier in Europe and at the same time hearers who
understand nothing or want to understand nothing, and who do not feel
what I play with me, and all my joy is gone” (1778).
“The _andante_ is going to give us the most trouble, for it is full of
expression and must be played with taste.... If I were her [Rose
Cannabich’s] regular teacher, I would lock up all her music, cover the
keyboard with a handkerchief, and make her practice on nothing but
passages, trills, mordents, etc., until the difficulty with the left
hand was remedied.”
Saint-Saëns, lover of irony and paradox, wrote a preface to his edition
of Mozart’s pianoforte sonatas, published at Paris in 1915, in which,
after a discussion of the ornaments, he has this to say:
“One is accustomed in modern editions to be prodigal with _liaisons_, to
indicate constantly _legato_, _molto legato_, _sempre legato_. There is
nothing of this in the manuscripts and the old editions. Everything
leads us to believe that this music should be performed lightly, that
the figures should produce an effect analogous to that obtained on the
violin by giving a stroke to each note without leaving the string. When
Mozart wished the _legato_, he indicated it. In the middle of the last
century, pianists were still found whose playing was singularly leaping
(as one may say). The old non-_legato_, being exaggerated, became a
_staccato_. This exaggeration brought a reaction in the contrary sense,
and this was pushed too far....
“This music of Mozart during his early years is destitute of nuances;
occasionally a _piano_ or a _forte_; nothing more. The reason for this
abstinence is because these pieces were written for the clavecin, and
its sonority could not be modified by a pressure of the finger.
Clavecins with two keyboards could alternate with _forte_ and _piano_,
but nuances, properly speaking, were unknown to them.
“In the 18th century, one lived more quietly than today, nor were there
in music our modern habits of speed, which is often inflicted on ancient
compositions to their great injury. It is necessary to shun in the case
of Mozart this tendency to hurry the movements, as too often happens.
His _presto_ corresponds to our _allegro_; his _allegro_ to our _allegro
moderato_. His _adagios_ are extremely slow, as is shown by the
multiplicity of notes sometimes contained in a single beat. The
_andante_ is not very slow.
“It was the rule, in his time, not to put the thumb on a black key
except from absolute necessity. This method of fingering gives to the
hand great restfulness, precious for the performance of old music that
demands perfect equality of the fingers.
“The first pianofortes were far from having the powerful sonority of the
great modern instruments. Therefore, it is not always necessary to take
Mozart’s _forte_ literally; it is often the equivalent of our _mezzo
forte_.”
SERGE SERGIEVICH
PROKOFIEFF
(Born at Sontsovka, Russia, April 24, 1891)