Russian pianist school and big sound

[mikkeljs]

Thiese two things seems to be connected.

Since I´m a pianist, of cause I´m a fan of systematical enlargement of the technique rather than enlargment only by need . But I have always liked better to listen to a performance by a bit colder and calmer sounding pianist than the ones with a great and big sound. I don´t know, if I´m right, but when I have listened to pianist compertitions, it often seems to be the pianists with the more cold sound, that have the greatest precision and musicality, and they perform a very mature and finished work of art, than the "russians" (sorry  ).

Others in here that feel the same way? 

I was wondering a lot, especially because I have to use the experience directly, if perhabs the sounding potential of a piano is growing exponentially with the degree of loudness, so that the greatest part of the sound spectrum is between pp and mp, and not between p and fff...? What do you think about that?

Or is the tendency of better pianists among the cold pianists a question about control difficulty with the bigger sound?   

[springrite]

I am not sure if Russian and Big Sound necessarily go hand in hand. Richter certainly has the big Sound. But he also has one of the most delicate pianissimmo.

[mikkeljs]

I am not sure if Russian and Big Sound necessarily go hand in hand. Richter certainly has the big Sound. But he also has one of the most delicate pianissimmo.

I know. It´s just a dogma of it.

[Holden]

I know. It´s just a dogma of it.

Gilels is another case in point. He certainly had a sound that could fill a concert hall yet there was nothing bombastic about his playing. His performance of K365 is evidence of this. Interesting that both Richter and Gilels had the same teacher - Heinrich Neuhaus.

[orbital]

Thiese two things seems to be connected.

Since I´m a pianist, of cause I´m a fan of systematical enlargement of the technique rather than enlargment only by need . But I have always liked better to listen to a performance by a bit colder and calmer sounding pianist than the ones with a great and big sound. I don´t know, if I´m right, but when I have listened to pianist compertitions, it often seems to be the pianists with the more cold sound, that have the greatest precision and musicality, and they perform a very mature and finished work of art, than the "russians" (sorry  ).

Others in here that feel the same way? 

I was wondering a lot, especially because I have to use the experience directly, if perhabs the sounding potential of a piano is growing exponentially with the degree of loudness, so that the greatest part of the sound spectrum is between pp and mp, and not between p and fff...? What do you think about that?

Or is the tendency of better pianists among the cold pianists a question about control difficulty with the bigger sound?   

I am with you on this (well, sort of). I've noticed that most of my favorite pianists have a cooler approach towards music (Michelangeli, Francois, Sofronitsky, etc). That does not always have to be subtle sound though (Weissenberg is a good case in point  )

[sidoze]

Interesting that both Richter and Gilels had the same teacher - Heinrich Neuhaus.

I would say it's more a coincidence than anything. After all Igor Zhukov studied with Neuhaus too, and he probably had the biggest piano sound of all.

By the way, Michelangeli had a blazing hot approach if you hear his recordings from the '50s.