Hello,

I have recently become totally enamored with the great classical pianist
Andras Schiff... in addition to collecting his performances I have been
reading old interviews and articles on him on the Internet. One marvelous
interview struck me as relevant to our own art form, in that Herr Schiff
discusses music in tactile vocabulary. I quote in part:

Q: What came across in yesterday's concert, above all, was your incredible
ability, with the wide range of composers you covered, to shade (color)
dynamically. Where did you learn this?

A.S. "I learned that in my development and previous musical experience, but
it is also a necessity. Every musician has a "sound-imagination." Some have
little of it, some a lot. It is like the richness of color: many people are
satisfied with black and white, others use more color, some a whole palette.
I always heard richness of color, but couldn't realize it, because I was too
young.

People speak so much today of technique: "Such and such pianist has great
technique." Mostly, this is misunderstood—the pianist celebrated now by
music critics as a "fantastic technician," is mostly the one who plays the
fastest and the loudest, and doesn't produce any wrong notes. But, on the
contrary, great technique signifies, to me, an infinitely alive
"sound-imagination" and " -inventivenes"—and then, to realize this. In this
way, the realization of the richness of color is achieved. If a pianist
hears only two colors, the realization of those is no great art. To me, in
this sense, Alfred Cortot, who played many wrong notes, had the greatest
technique. Because he produced an unbelievable richness of color on the
piano, millions of colors—like a great painter. That's very important to me.
That's why painting and the other arts, to me, are so important.

Recently, I was at a Frans Hals exhibit, and in the descriptions it was
stated, that he could depict over thirty shades of black alone. You can see
it in his paintings: there is hiding a tremendous technique, of course, but
moreover, a corresponding conception. First comes the idea, then the
technique. And not reversed!

Today, the concept of technique is continually misunderstood. What now is
often described as technique, is actually mere mechanics. Mechanics is
something motor-like, machine-like. Technique is much more refined,
something humans have evolved."
(http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid...1-2schiff.html)

On the list we discuss regularly technique vs. artistry... curious what
people's thoughts are, and what they make of the above quoted passage as it
relates to their personal journey in bonsai.


David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
Bunabayashi Bonsai On The World Wide Web: http://www.bunabayashi.com
email:

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