L. Ravi Narasimhan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Ruggiero Ricci conducted a wonderful master class at Whittier
>College...........  While helping one student through the fiendish
>Wieniawski Scherzo-Tarantelle, he told a story about how he'd rigged up
>an induction motor to a phonograph so as to play Heifetz's recording of
>that piece backwards.  He then proceeded to play it backwards, in tempo
>and without any apparent effort.

I heard that about five years ago Ricci gave another masterclass, during
which a student played the Paganini Caprice No.  5, and here he also
proceeded to play this piece backwards as well.  Have any of the performers
on this list used "backwards-playing" as a technique for learning a
piece?  I'm sure it can be done, but I'm wondering if the result is worth
the effort time-wise.  I'm wondering if this just happens to be something
that Ricci is good at, or something that most virtuosos (and accomplished
experts) can probably do.

hector aguilar