Playing Chopin

"To play Chopin, you must know Chopin" this was the agreement reached following a serious discussion on interpreting his music. Rummaging through a couple of his biographies, I came across one written by Arthur Hedley in

The master musicians: Chopin. J.M Dent & Sons LTD, 1947,1963 & 1974.

Here are some excerpts from Chapter 10 Page118, which presents some useful insight in to Chopin as a Pianist and Teacher.

Style:
His playing style was very personal, elusive, so little susceptible to definition that it could not have been handed down to his disciples, even if Chopin had been more fortunate in his pupils than actually was the case. And when he vanished from the scene nothing of his art as a pianist was left; there remained only a legend-and the protests of those who best knew his playing, when they heard his music interpreted by others, even by sensitive artists like Tausig and Rubinstein:' No,no! Not like that!'


Selected Accounts of His playing

By The Daily News
We have never heard music which has so much the air of unpremeditated effusion. The performer seems to pour out , unconsciously as it were, the thoughts and emotions that pass through his mind.......He accomplishes enormous difficulties, but so quietly, so smoothly.... that the listener is not sensible of their real magnitude

By Ernest Legouve
Once at the piano Chopin played until he was exhausted. In the grip of a disease that knows no mercy, dark rings appeared around his eyes, a feverish brightness lit up his face, his lips turned vivid red and his breath came in short gasps. He felt, we felt that something of his life was flowing away with the music; he would not stop and we had not the strength to stop him. The fever which consumed him took possession of us all!

Means by which Chopin achieved his miracles:

-His hands though not large were extraordinarily supple and ideally proportioned for piano playing.
-Strict adherence to time, more so when playing Bach or Mozart he could be as steady as a metronome. Although while playing his own pieces, Berlioz suggests that Chopin could not maintain strict time (probably the "Tempo Rubato", which will have mention later)
-Evenness of touch
-Each of his fingers seemed to be controlled by individual will.
- He always maintained a pure singing tone, a fine legato and a carefully molded phrasing
- Unorthodox finger use (It was considered outrageous in the piano era)
such as sliding one finger over the other, or passing the fourth finger over the little finger.
-pedaling, few or none of the contemporaries experimented and used the pedal to such extreme as Chopin. It has been observed that when he dealt with such passages his feet literally vibrated!
-The tempo rubato......to be continued..below

Verbatim presentation on the Tempo Rubato from Page 124 of the same book mentioned above:

No element in Chopin's style of playing has aroused more discussion than his celebrated tempo rubato and none, it is safe to say, has been more responsible for false interpretation of his music.............With whatever freedom Chopin may have 'leaned about with his bars', one thing is certain:his use of rubato was more restricted than is commonly thought and could never be reduced to a mere recipe for adding a novel flavor to the music. With him the give and take in the matter of time values which rubato implies was always subject to the discipline of the 'presiding measure'. In a considerable portion of his work the use of rubato is quite out of place and may even make nonsense of the music. The worst of all is to hear Chopin's phrases distorted by those clumsy accelerandi and ritardandi (within the space of a bar or two) which so often pass for rubato. Where Chopin himself produced wonderful effects of lingering, of hesitation or on the other hand, of eager anticipation, was in those passages where no harm is done to the rhythmic and harmonic structure if, over a firmly controlled bass, the player allows the melody to vacillate in response to the mood of the movement, to hover, as it were in the air, or to bound forward to meet the next accent.

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In another simple explanation I came across somewhere the use of rubato was wonderfully picturized as thus:

Imagine a beautiful tree (say in a yorkshire dale setting). When the breeze sets in, only the leaves quiver and the branches move, with no set pattern, while the trunk stand firm. The leaves and branches are likened to the right hand parts and the trunk to the firm bass of the left hand. This perhaps is the best explanation of Tempo Rubato as far as it can get. Good luck to those attempting it.

From what I understand, Chopin was a real stickler about the whole rubato-in-time thing, but he also used tons of rubato. Gobs of it.

Originally Posted by spherenine

From what I understand, Chopin was a real stickler about the whole rubato-in-time thing, but he also used tons of rubato. Gobs of it.

A stickler about the rubato..that's for real!

This is very interesting. Thanks for the info

Chopin as a Teacher
Source: The same book mentioned above and is a compilation from contemporary sources and some by his students.

There is no great deal to be said of Chopin as a teacher. His pupils on the whole were undistinguished, which is not surprising when one considers whence they were drawn. He was the teacher a la mode for 18 years and the majority of his pupils were ladies of high aristocracy. When exceptionally he had a serious professional pupil, chopin was prepared to devote himslef generously to his interest.

Method

Chopin made all students even the advanced to go back to Clementi's Gradus and Cramer's studies.

In the matter of scale playing he made his pupils begin with the B major scale. He considered that when the hand was lightly placed on the keyboard with the fingers covering the notes E F# G# A# B (Right hand) it was in the ideal playing position. Until this easy and graceful position had become second nature to the pupil no attempt was made to practise scales containing more white notes. Chopin was well aware that, although easiest to read, the Scale of C major was the most difficult to play perfectly and therefore came last[Now, THAT WAS SOMETHING!]

Elbow level with the white keys,Hand neither towards the right or left

Octaves were to be played freely from the wrist, but without sacrificing fullness of the tone.

Above all Bach's Preludes and Fugues- l'indispensable du pianiste in Chopin's estimation-had to be studied with great care. Afterwards came his own studies.

All the time Chopin called for pure, round tone, perfect legato and graceful ease. "Facilement, Facilement" he would repeat. He had few hard and fast rules knowing that no two players have the same shape and size of hand.

He had a horror of his pupils becoming dull and mechanical and discouraged them from practicing more than 3 hours a day.

He was opposed to the use of mechanical contrivances

There would be 'stormy lessons' when his pupils were dense and annoying. On the other hand when the lesson went well Chopin might, if his pupil were studying a concerto, chime in with a delicious accompaniment on a second piano.

THE END

Few of Chopin's students ever matched or surpassed him. Those that could have, died very young. One example was Charles Flitsch, an infant prodigy, who died young. Liszt said of him " I will shut up shop when that young man sets out on his travels'

Are there any specifics about how he used rubato?

Originally Posted by JairCrawford

Are there any specifics about how he used rubato?

There is lot of mention on the rubato by his contemporaries. To me it seems all are beating about the bush- no one has been able to specify exactly how to achieve it. Even Liszt and Mikuli (Chopin's pupil) say the same thing i.e. firm bass etc.

I haven't come across Chopin's own take on the technique. Perhaps he may not have considered it a "technique", but rather an involuntary interpretation of his own music.

Wish there was recording of his playing.

Cheers