Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Rubinstein or horowitz couldn't play op 10 no 1?

... and life is, alas, so short!

Regards,

... alas and alack! Indeed Bruce.

Whenever I look at Op.10/1, I keep thinking of the hack who advised that one should have a surgeon handy when practising the Chopin Etudes.

I only play the ones that don't require the help of a surgeon (yes, there are a few).

You just aren't trying.

"It's been scientifically proven that Horowitz sucks" - and Science never lies !!

+1

For those who think it is proper, especially those who are close to the age of 70, it is important to remember that the original banality was: so an so sucks a big one, which refers to a act of oral sex.

Nevertheless, I have never used this word to describe any pianist, even Lang Lang.

Secondly, as stated in a filmed interview, Vladimir Horowitz broke the middle finger of his right hand, getting it stuck in a window when he was a child. It healed straight, unable to bend like his other fingers.

Therefore, playing an arpeggiated section at light speed, which this piece requires, may have been something he did not desire.

With my thin spindly fingers (and small hand), I know longer have any desire to learn or play this piece.

WHO CARES about this anyway. The more important point (in my opinion), as I broached earlier, is how Rubinstein improvised extensively for the better part of 30 minutes!

The colloquialism to which you refer has long been separated from the meaning to which you refer, although I suppose it is not without any relation.

Notice Rubinstein makes a mistake, so stops. What's sad about this vid is that he asks for a lighter touch - Mr Steinway replies 'No, any lighter and the keys will run away with you' Talk about the tail wagging the dog!

Scientists often lie. That's how they get funding....for piano research.

I've been relearning op 10 no 1 since I started practicing this year after 40 years of nothing. At age 18-20 I used to think this etude was too easy, not worthy of performing, just a warm-up. I could play it well at speed without wrong notes (surely not every time) but it was always in reach. After several months now it's still very difficult to do a whole page at speed without a mistake, but I can do it. A large impediment now seems to be the high touch weight of my "new" grand. Endurance is a BIG factor by the 4th or 5th page, and mistakes occur in the last line from sheer fatigue. I imagine if I were a touring professional, I would be loath to program this piece unless I could ensure a light enough action. (But that would not explain Horowitz, who toured with and recorded on his own very light action piano).

So perhaps Horowitz really was a great pianist after all - even if he didn't record the Opus 10 No. 1.

So much for "too easy."

Sarcasm aside--sad fact that while it's actually absolutely true that "Science" never lies, Scientists do.

It isn't easy .

I've heard conservatory students toss it off perfectly as though it is nothing, but the playing of it wasn't very interesting to hear.

This etude is the titanic, cosmos-wide opener to the set, and to do it justice and never conserve or hold back on the range of expression shouldn't be easy at all, far from it . . .

Or sometimes they simply "misinterpret" things due to their lack of understanding.