WRITINGS & NOTES

An adult beginner once asked me, wether I could teach her to play the piano at short notice   „ like she drives her car“.  If it would be so easy to concentrate only on the goal and not on the "how"! But does one really get closer to the goal when making music if everything runs by itself?
In my teaching practice, I very often had to deal with students with an already established way of playing; they had established themselves in their way of playing and technique and yet often had a feeling of discomfort, something was not quite right yet. Sometimes they didn't have that feeling either and I had to tell them that something was wrong.
I rarely advised them to press the reset button to start all over again, according to the "right method". This can take a long time and the pressure of suffering must be very high in order to become a beginner again after already beeing a recognized pianist. The chances of success are not always 100 percent too. I am not at all convinced that this „right method“ actually exists. There are so many ways to play the piano well. Very often, specific hints are enough to bring about enlightenment: To gain awareness of body and movements, to be able to listen, to learn differnt ways of touches.... And above all: to understand and feel the music well.
Thus the student determines the method himself. He is the method.

... Abstract of a lecture and publication, Cologne 2014

I. The performers of the 2nd Viennese School

The 2nd Viennese School is the circle of Arnold Schönberg's pupils and friends in Vienna from 1904 onwards. In the narrower sense, these include Alban Berg and Anton Webern; however, in addition to other composition students of Schönberg, interpreters also belong to the extended circle; the pianist Eduard Steuermann and the violinist Rudolf Kolisch played an outstanding role here. In the "Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen" founded by Schönberg in Vienna in 1918, they played a decisive role in numerous performances of contemporary music and developed their own performance practice, which they passed on in practice and theory as teachers and publicists. The philosopher and composer Theodor W. Adorno, also a member of the Schönberg Circle, formulated the aesthetics of the performance theory of the Viennese School most succinctly in sketches to an unfished book "Theory of Musical Reproduction" .

II. The true performance and its criteria.

The core of the performance theory of the Viennese School is the utopian idea of true performance.
The true reproduction is the X-ray photography of the work. Its task is to make visible all relations, moments of connection, contrast, construction that lie hidden beneath the surface of the sensual sound - and indeed by means of articulation of the sensual appearance.

The elements of a musical reproduction are: a precise analysis, the technical skill, the mimetic.

On sound: clarity and clarity are the criteria of "good sound", not to be confused with "beautyful sound". The quality of the sound is at the service of the structure.
On tempo and character: tempo is an integral part of the work and has a significant influence on the character. However, a conscious shaping of tempo (also with the help of the metronome) includes the rubato: the dynamically moving tempo, the Viennese rubato.
To the text:  The musical text is the binding basis for the reproduction of music. But it is: not only instruction for performance, no fixation of the imagination, but the necessarily fragmentary, incomplete notation of an objective that needs interpretation up to finite convergence.
Analysis: Starting from a necessarily subjective view, the objective structure of the work is to be revealed. The goal of a sensually experienceable performance in view extends to all subcutaneous, i.e. under the sounding surface lying elements of the composition. It also includes the hidden mimetic expression of the composition and the espressivo.

III. On topicality

Much of the demands of the Viennese School can be seen as a reaction to the performance practice of the time. However, the principle is valid and up-to-date and determines the playing and teaching practice of countless musicians, even if there is no longer any reference to the originators. The implementation of these ideas, however, remains a challenge, also for the universities.

…Abstract of lectures in Seoul and  Cologne, 2012

Carl Czerny (1791-1857) was a highly important figure at the beginning of the golden age of the piano. Although not a high level composer he had an immense influence on the art of piano playing by his didactic literature, his teaching and his students. He was personally allied to the two most important piano composers of the 19th century, Beethoven and Liszt, (as a pupil and a teacher) and proofs in his piano aesthetics that he is the link between the classic and the romantic period. His paedagogic method is based on bourgeoise virtues like diligence, dedication to work and the motto “per aspera ad astra”. One of its major tools is repetition, but the ultimate goal is always musical beauty.

I. Pianist

Started as a child prodigy, but no carrier because of the parent’s situation. Later not many appearances in public because of shyness and no time for practice. Could he play all his own music?

II. Composer

More than 800 published Works, only 10% is didactic literature. Chamber music, symphonies, masses, 10 piano sonatas ; lot of brilliant virtuoso music like variations, rondos, opera paraphrases. Arrangements of favorite pieces of other composers. for up to 8 piano players. Music for piano 6 hands. The piano didactic compositions like “School of Virtuosity” “School of Velocity”, “160 Eight-bar Exercises” “School of polyphonic Playing” etc. creates the title “etude” for a technical exercise in the form a character piece

III. Teacher

Czerny was (with Liszt and Leschetitzky) the most successful instructor in the history of piano playing.
Teaching since he was 15 years until 44. Passionate teacher with deep knowledge and enthusiasm. Famous students: Liszt, Thalberg, Leschetitzky. His own teachers: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (Austrian school, pupil of Mozart, lightness, elegance, velocity) Muzio Clementi (English school, bigger sound, expression and dramatic impulse) Antonio Salieri (composition, known as Mozarts counterpart). Beethoven, the most important person in his life. Systematic building up a piano technique based on fingertraining (scales, arpeggios) according to the instruments of the time. (fortepiano, Hammerfluegel). The fingers as the only moving part. Arm and body are passive. (N.B. This technique is today no longer taught; the participation of the whole body was first discribed 70 years later by J.M. Breithaupt.)  Important methodic tool is repetition. Resumme of his Paedagogy: “Vollstaendige theoretisch practische Pianoforteschule op.500” in 4 parts: Piano thechnique and musictheorie, Vortragslehre (school of interpretation) and a guide to the interpretation of Beethovens piano music.
A summit of all known piano schools of the past with hundreds of originally composed examples. Part 3 (Von dem Vortrage) is a fundamental piano- aethstetic compendium to the 19th century music (how to play the music from 1800 to 1860) and has the same importance for the 19th century as C.Ph.E.bachs “Versuch ueber die wahre Art das pianoforte zu spielen” for the 18th century.
See also Czernys “letters to a young lady” a kind of teaching via written piano lessons.

IV. Editor

First Bach-Edition (a.o. WKI+II, Kunst der Fuge etc.) edition method unscientific and subjectif (“..as I remember Beethoven’s playing” )
Scarlatti. Today only of historical interest, no Urtext.

V. The man

Kleinbuerger im “Biedermeier”. Restauration period in Austria after the end of Napoleons occupation. Secret police, political repression. No marriage, no women, the eternal bachelor; no extravagance, dominated by his parents; highly successful as composer and instructor, economically too (he left a heritage of 100.000 Gulden)