MP Speaks 2003 - The "Pressler Sound" / Arm-Finger Technique / Rubinstein-Serkin-Casadesus (CC)

0:00 MP: Would you like to ask me a question? (CC Available)
MO: Technique seems so easy. Pull the arm and move the fingers.
MP: In Principle, it’s very easy. The concept is not much understood. I learned that from a teacher, a famous pianist by the name of Egon Petri. He said, “You have to think about it like you’re pulling a dog along with you.” So I pulled my arm like a dog.Of course, the fingers have to be strong so that when you pull, you can also play all the fingers. But if you don’t pull and just concentrate only on the fingers, you can’t get that speed in something like this or in something very short. I mean, the rest of the passage is (Sings). But if you play (Sings), you are late. So it's (Sings). Just the last 4 notes that you pull on the arm. It's actually an important concept.
   • Menahem Pressler Speaks - Marlin Owen / MT...  

Q: We heard last night the Pressler sound. It’s a big topic. Can you say a few words about tone?
MP: A few words would not be enough! I’m glad that you heard it because it's been something that, naturally, has been important through my life.
2:07 Sound is formed in your ear first, then the ear demands of the arm what to do. Now, I don’t know if it starts first with the teacher, that makes you aware of it? It probably does, the teacher who is very much aware of the beauty of sound. Does ask for it. I do remember my teacher very often asking for a better sound. Not that I immediately knew what he was talking about. I only knew that what I was doing was something that he didn’t like. He did not know how to use the arm. For instance, when I teach, I teach them how to use the arm. But the concept of beautiful sound must start with what you hear.
03:19 And so I was always attracted to the pianists who had a beautiful sound. Not just by the pianists, but by cellists, violinists, everyone who had a beautiful sound attracted me and forced me to evaluate my own sound regarding that. You heard Rubenstein, who was always sumptuous, a magnificent sound. You heard Serkin, who was the most ugly sound in contrast. The only thing is, sometimes an ugly-looking person can have lots of brains. And the one who is beautiful sounding can have no brains. But, you will first be attracted to by someone who is looks beautiful. So you will be attracted in music by someone who sounds beautiful. Now, if that person also has the brains that go with it and can phrase it beautifully, of course, that is the more important one. But the other one, who likes. I’m using Serkin because he was an usually great artist. He was like Parsifal, the man who watched out for the values of music, but in the most cutting kinds of sound. It bothered him later, but he was taught that way, and he could not change his arm in regard to the instrument. So that sound is a concept that I do teach that because, of course, I believe in it. I’m actually demanding it in my trio. I sometimes ask them to change fingerings, which I actually don’t know. But I know what I hear and ask according to that. So we start learning and then developing.

05:48 MO: Could I say something to the students? It’s important to listen to CDs, and you hear that sound on CDs. But to hear that (Pressler) sound live in a concert. I use the analogy like seeing a painting in a gallery under perfect light as opposed to seeing it in an art book. And that's what it was last night, sitting there, hearing that Pressler sound, being enveloped, embraced, and transported by your artistry!
Thank you very much. It’s touching for me and wonderful to be understood that which you want to say is understood, and you’re saying it, and the other person reacts.

06:46 Any Questions?
How do you suggest we practice so that we can have clarity in pp?
MP: You start it loud, in f. Then you reduce it to mf, mp, p, and pp. Because it doesn’t start (technique) in the pp. You have to learn how to play clear. Then you learn how to you use more weight or less weight. But one thing you will learn is that when you play softly, you need as strong fingers as when you play loudly. Most pianists think that when they play soft, they play with fingers that are very weak. You cannot play a pp because there is no control. I would advise, which I have my students do, is in scales. All my students play scales. And if you get used to it it’s the same as brushing your teeth in the morning. I remember one of my teachers, who was a very famous pianist, Casadesus, played scales every day. But let’s say he arrived late to play a concert. He wouldn’t play through the pieces, he would play scales. He knew his pieces, obviously, but that is something to think about. He was a great pianist, wonderful, a marvelous musician. But he would be very, very conscious of that his fingers were right. So that means scales, octaves, 3rds. All kinds.
5/02/03
Mozart: K. 493 & Concerto No. 27, K. 595
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