Scott Morrison writes:

>I just got around to reading this article and found it to be, in a word,
>brilliant, not too surprising considering Rosen's well-known ability to
>explicate arcane matters. To any of you on the list who have played the
>piano at any level beyond the most elementary, much of it will ring true,
>set out in a way that most of us would never have thought to explain it.

I too, found it interesting, but for a different reason:

These famous Lisztian octave passages bring up an important point:  the
performance of music is not only an art, but a form of sport, rather like
tennis or fencing.  This is particularly true of piano music, although the
violinist who wields his bow aggressively like a sword has not been unknown
to audiences since the early nineteenth century.  The triumphant octave
effects are not only the greatest crowd-pleasers (when Horowitz was young,
members of the audience sometimes stood on their seats to watch him play
the octaves in the first and last movements of the Tchaikovsky concerto);
they also require special and painful training similar to the hours of
exercise to which athletes must submit.  Rubinstein, jealous of Horowitz's
glamorous success, remarked sardonically to him, "You have won the octave
Olympics."

This brings to light a discussion Ian Crisp and I have been having back
channel.  On another list he asked about a well known musician, relatively
advanced in age, who he felt had played rather poorly.  I suggested that
like athletes.  musicians also go through the inevitable aging process and
while technique might be maintained after a certain age and musicality can
increase with time, a musicians technique cannot improve with time, say
past the age of 40.

Is piano playing an exception to this? We have numerous examples of
pianists playing well into their 80s and 90s (Ian also raises the fact that
there are many Indian classical musicians who also play well at an advanced
age).  Of course we also have violinists who should have been put out to
pasture years ago.

My teacher, who played at the Met Opera for 40 years and was considered the
best in the world on his instrument, felt that he peaked at 40, everything
thereafter was maintenance, and retired playing as well at 68 as he played
at 40.

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