jeffw@orca.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (02/01/84)
I am an avid and critical "classical" pianist (purely amatuer). I have
heard a lot of pianists, both amatuer and professional, and I have formed
some pretty definite opinions about how most of these played. The idea that
men make intrinsically better pianists than women is hogwash. It is true
that a woman pianist of who is not of first rank most often errs on the
side of what might be called "weakness", but one finds about the same
proportion of mediocre male pianists who know how to bang away and little
else. Unfortunately, banging away seems to impress audiences more than
intelligent but "weak" playing, so many of these "bangers" (sausages?)
nonetheless have reasonably successful careers.
Excellent piano playing requires some strength, but even more control, and
the kind of concentration that allows you to listen to what you are playing,
think about it, and shape it appropriately. For most pieces, therefore, men
should have no intrinsic advantage.
I can imagine most women would have trouble with a few composers -
Rachmaninov, for example, and some Brahms (like the 2nd Piano Concerto) -
but that's only because they (Rachmaninov anyway) had huge hands and wrote
accordingly. But that doesn't mean they would be poorer musicians because
of it.
And since I mentioned Brahms...
I'm not quite sure what is meant by a Brahms Intermezzo requiring a "feminine"
touch or outlook. All of these pieces require not merely "sensitivity" but
a kind of emotional intensity which, I would guess, is not found in women any
oftener than it is in men.
Jeff Winslow rs55611@ihuxk.UUCP (Robert E. Schleicher) (02/03/84)
Your mention that Rachmaninov had large hands and wrote accordingly raised a question in my mind. Is there a lot of music that simply can't be played (or at least is made much more difficult) without having hands large enough to span X keys? It would seem to me that hand size or span would be a much more important attribute than hand strength. (But, then again, I don't play the piano.) Have many of the great pianists been noted for having large hands and/or long fingers? (Perhaps a stupid question, but...) Bob Schleicher ihuxk!rs55611
colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (George Sicherman) (02/06/84)
A very perceptive essay. Do you know Busoni's edition of Bach? It's full of exhortations to the pianist to honor the "masculine" nature of Bach's music. Busoni's technical points are usually well taken, but to identify Bach's style with "masculinity" and that of the later Romantics with "femininity" offends history as well as the pianist. Col. George Sicherman ...seismo!rochester!rocksvax!sunybcs!colonel