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The Russian School of Music*

By Arthur Feldthusen

 

The Russian, or Slavic, school can be described as warm-hearted, generous, extrovert, colorful, but rhythmically disciplined.  A flexible use of time is evident in this school.  Beauty of tone is emphasized, and one never produces an ugly or percussion-like sound, whatever the dynamic intensity.

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“Before your fingers touch the keys, you must begin the piece mentally – that is to say, in your mind you must have decided the tempo, the articulation, and the approach to the first notes, before you actually begin to play.  Likewise the character of the piece.”  (Anton Rubinstein) 1829-94.

 

The sound must never be produced by pounding the keys, but by an elastic descent on them from upper joint of the fingers  [i.e. the metacarpophangeal joint], so that the weight of the arm is felt in the tips of the finger without the least stiffness in the wrist.  Unless a special harsh effect is required, a chord must never be prepared in a stiff position because then the tone will be hard and expressionless.  The chord must, so to speak, be hidden in the closed hand, that opens in the descent from above to the necessary position precisely at the instant when it reaches the piano.  This means that the chord must be prepared in the mind of the pianist before the hand opens.  This was the secret behind the unparalleled beauty of the sound of Anton Rubinstein’s chords. (Safonov) 1852-1918.

 

Broadly speaking, the most highly developed technique can be traced back to scales and arpeggios.  The practice of these never need be mechanical or uninteresting.  This is affected by the attitude of the teacher.  Actually, broadly speaking, the teacher is responsible if the pupil finds the practice of scales tedious.  It is due to the pupil´s not having been given enough to think about as concerns shading, evenness, differentiated touch, rhythm, and so on.   Cultivation of the “singing” touch should be part of the daily work, from the very first elementary instruction of beginners.  It is hitting or banging that ruins a lovely tone. Imagine rather that you are playing on the strings themselves, making them sound with gentle felt-covered hammers rather than with hard metal rods.  When the finger touches the surface of the key, it should feel as if it grasps (seizes) the key, rather than striking or hitting it.  There is a very great difference in the effect here.  Don’t think of the piano’s  ivory surface.  Those who play on the piano as though they were drumming on a tabletop will never achieve the instinctive feeling of a good tone.  Again, when the hand is lowered, the broadest possible surface of the pad of the finger must engage the key and the wrist must be so relaxed that it normally sinks below the surface of the piano.  If one imagines the movement in “slow motion,” there would be no point, no instant, when the movement seems to pause on its way down.  If there were such a point, it would produce a bang.  Often this concerns only the first tone of the melody or phrase.  If the melody is to be played legato, the following tones must be “taken” by the fingers very close to the keys, with the movements of the wrist corresponding to the pattern of the melody.  With legato, it is essential at the same time to control the gradual release of the key that has been pressed down. The pupil who prizes a good tone must have patience to practice all the scales with each hand, with one finger at a time, until this principle is mastered automatically. The playing becomes more satisfying as regards beauty of tone.  But it is important to listen! There are three preconditions that must be met:

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1.  The upper and lower arm must have a feeling of extreme lightness - as though they were “floating in space” and with a complete absence of nervous tension or stiffness.

2. Delicacy is meaningless without depth of tone - the key must reach the bottom.

3. The finger that is raised must be very close to the surface of the key.

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One of the most important as well as the most practical things for a pianist to achieve is knowledge of the principle of relaxation and how this can be used in stroke and tone.  There must, of course, be a firmness in the hand, otherwise there is no strength, precision, or control.  Likewise, there must be firmness in the fingers, otherwise there is no accuracy and consequently no good tone.  In principle, relaxation begins in the wrist and arm;  however the secret of its usefulness and use is to use it at the right time and place, and not other places, where it would prevent the creation of a firm, elastic, vibrant tone.  We must have tension and relaxation at one and the same time, but not in the same place.  There must ordinarily be resistance in the fingers, however loose the wrists and arms may be.  This seeming contradiction in ideas is one of the difficulties in creating touch and tone.  The fingers can play on the tips or on the pads, with the wrist high or low.  All these things influence the quality of tone to some degree.  Bent fingers that play on the tips produce a more or less brilliant tone.  Fingers played on the pads give a more velvety quality.  For some effects, the fingers are held very close to the keys and are scarcely lifted.  This is the opposite of the raised, fundamental touch, with distinct action of the finger.

 

As concerns the question of playing with emphasis, which always demands some relaxation at the right place, it must always be a question of conscious weight-distribution, both for pp and for ff.  Without weight, the tone sounds thin and dry.  It is an important study learning how one graduates this use of weight and to adjust its use for different effects. No one can tell the pianist how it is done;  one has to discover it for oneself through empathy and experiment.  Any pianist who tries to achieve a beautiful tone must have a mental preconception of what a beautiful tone is.  Some people are born with a sense of tonal beauty.  It is like a finely balanced sense of color that some possess in contrast to those who are color-blind.  (Lhevinne) 1874-1944.

 

– from the moment one feels the finger must sing, it becomes strong. (Horowitz) 1903-89.

 

In connection with the use of the pedal harmonic clarity is the foundation, but only the foundation;  it doesn’t fully constitute an artistic treatment of the pedal -- there are many instances where a mixture of tones, seemingly foreign to one another, signifies a characterization.  In this connection one should remember that the pedal is not only a means of prolonging tone but also a means of coloration.  For example, large accentuating effects can be created by a gradual amassing of tonal strength through the pedal and its sudden release at the point accentuated.  The effect is rather similar to that which we hear in an orchestra when a crescendo underscored by the roll of drums gives the final emphasis to the point accentuated.  We can produce strange effects by an appropriate mixture of harmonically foreign tones, for example in the fine embroidery-like cadences of Chopin’s works.  Such mixtures produce a multiplicity of effects, particularly when we add dynamic variation.  Under no circumstances use the pedal as a cloak for imperfections in the performance.  In the same way, the left-hand pedal must not be seen as a license to ignore the creation of a fine pp., but serve as a means of coloration.  (Hofmann) 1876-1957.

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* Translated from the original text in Danish. 

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