Pianists corner

Jorge Bolet Chopin-Godowsky BBC 1988

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Jorge Bolet BBC 1988

This is the most fascinating programme of Bolet as teacher and performer. Made in the BBC Studios with a small audience, the interviewer gets Bolet to talk about Godowsky then demonstrate the difference between Chopin and Godowsky’s version of the three pieces to be played

Sir András Schiff Piano Masterclass at the RCM: Martin James Bartlett

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András Schiff masterclass with Martin James Bartlett on Schubert’s Impromptus op 90 on Sunday 10 April 2016 at the Royal College of Music, London

Compare Franz Schubert performances of Impromptu (4) D 899 (1827)

2. Allegro (E-flat major)

3. Andante (G-flat major)

Seymour Bernstein: Chopin & Pedagogy (Interview)

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From his nest on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, legendary pedagogue Seymour Bernstein is joined by tonebase Head of Piano Ben Laude for an interview at his faithful Steinway. (2020).

Bernstein shares his thoughts on the role of teachers in a student’s personal journey with music and offers simple but powerful insights into natural, effortless use of the arm in piano playing.

Tatiana Nikolayeva talks about Shostakovich

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The Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924-1993) was close to the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich and recorded his complete Preludes and Fugues opus 87 in homage to Johann Sebastian Bach – which was dedicated to her – four times: in 1962, 1987, 1990 and in 1992 as a filmed performance.

“Aside from the Shostakovich, though, Tatiana Nikolayeva will be remembered as a Bach player who flung stylistic considerations to the winds and played the music with an irrepressible musical intelligence and knowledge of the resources of her chosen instrument” James Methuen Campbell