Gal Shalev wrote:

>...  my piano teacher always tells me when I am playing Rachmaninoff
>lazily, "play like a man"!!!!!!!!  Phisically man have more power and mass
>and therefore can play large and difficult chords fuller and louder.  Also
>emotionaly and intellectualy there are many many differences that I can't
>get into a mere letter.  i am not saying that I can always identify the sex
>of the performer but I can many times.  I would like to emphasize again:
>Richter, my favorite pianist, Is the most masculine of players and anyone
>who knows his playing knows this.  The modesty, the intellect, the power,
>power, power.

Unfortunately making a loud noise on the piano by banging the keys
harder (which is the only attribute that physical strength will give)
has virtually nothing to do with conveying power in music (the maximum
volume that a piano can be played, without sounding unmusical, can easily
be attained by a woman).  Power comes from rhythmic drive, ability to grade
a crescendo, command of structure - including fortes and piano when they
are needed.  For example the most physically powerful, in that sense,
performance of Brahm's second piano concerto is by Myra Hess conducted
by Bruno Walter with the New York Philarmonic in 1951 - a record that for
some reason has escaped being regarded as the classic it is.  It exceeds
in sheer force even Richter, Gilels, or Pollini - to take just three
favourite interpretatations that rival, or even surpass it in other ways.
Ditto Richter in Beethoven, for example the Appassionata or Pathetique
is extraordinarily powerful - but so is Annie Fischer.  Richter is my
favourite pianist - but for his extraordinary 'iron' grasp of structure and
ability to place the smallest detail in context, not because he can make a
louder noise than anyone else.  In contrast is is Wilhelm Kempff, again a
favourite Beethoven pianist, who uses the most restrained fortissimo of
any of these, but conveys real power through sharply etched phrasing.

John Glover <[log in to unmask]>