What really helps me is talking to the audience about the piece (of course only if possible). Since I love to speak in front of people, this has always worked to make me feel much more comfortable before I even start playing. Edit: You can even see it in my own videos, sometimes I am still talking when the recording started :D
I completely agree - speaking to the audience is so helpful for me as well. And it helps me focus on those things that I love about the repertoire! -Robert
@@tonebasePiano Exactly. As I already said, I uploaded videos of me playing Rachmaninoff, and some of them are live performances where the recording started while I was still speaking :D I always speak about the beauty of Rachmaninoff's music and that I hope to be able to evoke some of these emotions in the audience. When I played Rach 2 for an audience in my video, 1st movement, I pulled off the best performance I ever had!
I had to give a weather briefing for all the top brass at NAS Marietta, Georgia, USA. There were multiple captains (O6) of the various US Navy fighter squadrons in the room included the Commanding officer of the base, himself. Altogether there were about hundred officers in the briefing room. I was a lowly second class petty officer- an enlisted position, not an officer. Before the brief I decided to practice my 😅briefing before my chief- (which is a senior enlisted position). He completely disagreed with the format that I was using. I began to get rattled by this insistence to form because my briefing was going to be very soon!! I had to quickly gather up newly reprinted weather charts and began to scribble up the charts Fronts, low pressure, high pressure etc. I had to scribble them all on at this last second! Thanks Chief!! To add to this another enlisted girl came in a totally also joined in the feeding frenzy of criticizing my format. She was lower than me and constantly manipulating in a showy, narcissistic manner, while constantly rotating around showing off her figure. This rattled me further , but I was at least able to order her away. She skulked away further stressing me out!! It’s as if she wanted to rob me of my performance confidence along with the chief! It’s still hard to think of the devastating experience that her and the chief’s behavior fostered in me in the last minutes before my brief!!!!! I had only but one advantage- I had been doing practice weather briefs for years at our Navy weather computer sent and away from an actual weather office. Somehow all this briefing skills came back to me after a gap of years in which I had a baby. I ran to the briefing room. I stuck chats on a briefing board as others briefed on various squadron activities. It was now my turn!! I engaged the Commanding Officer with “Captain today your golf forecast is…” And the room exploded in laughter! I pretended that my scribbled weather charts were not a mess but were clean and tidy. I bluffed every conceivable confidence. I basically acted!! I won the brief! I heard back from my chief that they had LIKED MY BRIEF!! And Chief says to me “See what happens when you follow good form.” Right, Chief!!
I went for it, and my attitude: "If you can do better, come do it!" Nobody wanted to come to the bench of the pipe organ, so they were stuck with me, and I earned my pay.
@tonebasePiano Amazing what Maria Joa Pires, did, but all proves one important thing, that many people in the world don't acknowledge, and that is the incredible brain ,the True GOD JEHOVAH created, everytime I play my digital piano, iam always reminded humbly speaking how amazing our brains are, created by the almighty God JEHOVAH, greetings from wales uk 😀
I was watching that happen to Tianxu An live. Even the announcers were confused when they read the upcoming programme, then "corrected" themselves, much to the amusement of all the Russian speakers in the hall, including the conductor. All the while Tianxu An stood off-stage, looking a little concerned, with the conductor reassuring him with a smile. I feared the worst, and then it happened. Tianxu An showed nerves of absolute steel and did himself proud.
@@tonebasePiano I was watching the live stream is what I meant. Unfortunately I wasn't actually there. But it was one of those moments when you feel like you're the only person who seems to realise that everyone else is not on the same page - literally!
I haven't had this exact situation. The closest I came was a coaching with flutist Carol Wincenc for my official New York debut recital. I had programmed Copland's Duo for flute and piano. The first movement has an extremely awkward page turn, so I'd set up a copy of page two so that I could turn at a convenient moment. I flipped the page only to discover that the rest of the pages were not in order, the middle had gotten separated. In that moment I made the decision to keep playing from memory; though I had performed the piece before, since it's a duo I had never thought of it as a piece to memorize. I reasoned that it was a good test for a disaster in concert. Somehow I was able to play the first movement without stopping. So I guess I had internalized the music from practice, the prior performance and having listened to the premier recording multiple times.
I am a dual degree student in engineering and piano performance in college (who a few months ago actually had the MASSIVE honour of playing for Maria Joao Pires at a masterclass!). All the points you describe are spot on, whenever you’re learning a new piece or a new programming language - engaging with the material, really making sure you’re concentrating, and make sure you achieve comfort in what you learned before moving onto a new chapter or piece. Edit: What Artymiw said - that’s EXACTLY what I have been doing to combat stage fright! Now, I still feel “nervous” right before going on stage, but that isn’t really worry that I might fail and cause disappointment to my audience - it’s just shivers of excitement, joy, and gratefulness that I have the ability to share some of my favourite pieces of music with them!
To add some context to the comments below, based on Pires’ complete interview that we see only extracts from: This particular scenario took place at the public rehearsal the afternoon of the day of the concert, not at the concert itself. In the interview she also says that the last time she had played K.466 had been about 10 months prior. This context also explains the actions of Chailly as it is hard to imagine a conductor consciously exposing his/her soloist to a similar kind of risk in an analogous concert situation… Not withstanding the public rehearsal setting, Pires’ feat is extraordinary!
This is SO valuable and on target. Nothing more frustrating than working with a teacher who gives no thought to performance anxiety and REFUSES to at least acknowledge that mental glitches , like in golf, is always the largest part of the game/
I was lucky to attend her concert in April where she played Beethoven’s 4th. The performance was impeccable. Great respect to her for still being actively on tour and offering the highest standard performances
In NYC, I studied with German Diez, who immigrated from Cuba to study with Claudio Arrau. They remained close for decades. German told me that when Arrau recorded the Liszt First with Ormandy/Philadelphia, he thought that he was supposed to play the Beethoven Third. On the spot, he proceeded to play the Liszt in one take.
It's impressive. But we shouldn't forget that the d minor is one of the most popular Mozart concertos and Pires for sure played it countless times over decades. After all she's most famous for playing Mozart. There are certainly less frequently played concertos she would have had more problems to pull off from memory without preparation. After all she stopped in last minute so she would have had very little time to prepare the concerto she had expected, too.
What i do during a crisis is light my hair on fire, take off all my clothes, run around outside naked, screaming “i can’t take this anymore”. But that’s just me.
Thanks for sharing this video! I knew already what problem Mrs. Pires had to Face. And indeed this also happened to Alicia de Larrocha. She was due to play Mozarts KV 595, but after arriving the conductor told her, she had to play the second Rachmaninoff concerto. Lucky for her she had both the second and third concerto on her repertoire. So she quickly repeated some difficult passages and had a discussion with the conductor, after which she played the full Rach.2 concerto till the end. She must have had a extraordinary memory.
During my fist cello recital, I was playing Saint-Saëns’ Allegro Appasionata and didn’t have the second page of the sheet music. My mind went blank. I remember thinking, “well, I guess I’ll improvise.” I remember making things up. My teacher came up to me after the recital to congratulate me. I was utterly exhausted. I told him how awful I felt about messing up the piece. He looked at me confused, saying, in effect, “you played correctly.” Apparently, my “improvisation” was memorization disguised by fear.
Was fortunate to have a amazing teacher when studying piano in music school. He insisted on me learning to improvise. Would give a single melody and expect a complete improvisation of a piece based on the melody. This came in handy when a performer might have a memory lapse could use their improvisation until getting back on track. Also was expected to improvise a cadenza for the piece. He also advised to have several concertos to preform at any time in case of a last minute change on the concerto being played with the orchestra.
Another beautiful video. The points you make are beautiful. The way you make them is beautiful. The experiences of learning and growth which you describe are in their own way beautiful. The materials and contributions you draw on here are beautiful. And I've decided that the brilliant curly-haired musician guiding us through it all is also rather beautiful.
Beautifully put together - some essence touched upon here. Pires brings tears to my eyes. Just after some nauseating BBC World Service programme on 'manifesting', it's good to get to the miracle without glib answers.
This happened to Lili Kraus, again with Mozart. At one point, she needed to consult the conductor’s score and very briefly explained what had happened. She simply said, “Don’t lose the magic!” She then sat down and completed the concerto. What poise!
I have been with my wife in Tel Aviv auditorium, and Maria Joa Piraes play Beethoven piano concerto n 3 under the direction of Zubin Metha, Will not forget for a life time this, and after we meet her at the artist exit, as extraordinary is as musician she is as a human being Miracle happens
I am completely stage-phobic. And it doesn't depress me because I don't hold desire to perform for groups of strangers. And why do something musical that I am not going to enjoy, that I am frankly going to very genuinely and strongly dislike? It serves no purpose. It would be literally the opposite of therapeutic and cause harm, emotional injury. I believe the whole purpose of music, any art, is to create a mutual pleasure response. Anything I write I am very happy for others to take and perform. Others that are at-home on a stage, that are relaxed to be able to perform at their best, and not at their worst due to anxiety and distress 🙂
I met Chailly in Leipzig. Nice chap. He signed the cd i had of him doing Rach 3 with Argerich. I like Pires Schubert impromptus album called 'Voyage' or some other very appropriate name!
Are you memorizing what the fingers are doing, or are you memorizing the sound of the music? This is key. With a hard-fought, life long search, I realized that if you memorize the sound, rather than the physical, "fingering" aspect, it is easier to perform. Way easier. The pianist reached back to retrieve from her *memory* how the concerto sounded.
I don't necessarily agree that sound memorization is necessarily superior - I find that playing from sound memory can result in a certain fragility, particularly for difficult sections which may sound quite different if even some small details are off (e.g. voicing is often crucial in dense textures). The risk for me is then that any small error/disturbance may mess with the sound I'm expecting, throwing me off further and causing more errors, etc. For those sections, I find it very useful to be able to play "mechanically" for a moment to properly recover. So while I generally like to memorize by sound, I intentionally work on memorizing movement information and even some individual notes (e.g. targets of large jumps) for critical passages as well. That being said, I agree there is a huge difference in my musical expression when playing from sound rather than physical memory, so I aim to use the former as much as possible, just while also having the option to consciously take control and focus on the physical motions if necessary. I'm only an amateur player by the way, so take all of the above with a grain of salt - probably less relevant for professionals who practice until they never make mistakes :P
I think at first he was trying to lean into comedy too hard and it wasn't quite working, but he's finding his style (and it makes jokes land better when they do happen)
I have seen this exceptional video so many times ! It still inspires me as a musician, as a sports performer and as a human ne being. And what management of the situation by the great and reverred conductor, Ricardo Chailly ! He found the exact few words to address the situation while conducting ! What you have shared can be extended to various similar contests. Thank you.
One little remark: when she's talking about having "average memory", she's clearly not talking about average memory as compared to all humans in all walks of life. It's implied (and later specified) that she is talking about her memory as compared to other professional musicians. This is quite a different group of people, with a way higher demand on and training in memorization. Like, a semi-professional tennis player is likely average in the class of semi-professional and professional tennis players, but is better than 99.999% of the humans who ever walked or will walk the Earth.
You love the sound of your own voice. Wish I just had seen the episode. Well, remember this was a dress rehearsal. So she could allow herself to go with the flow.
@@tonebasePiano Videos haven’t been necessary for some years. Often a given performer’s audience appeal is based on distractions from what they’re actually doing-distractions that can easily belong more in Times Square than in Carnegie Hall. “Whatever gets butts in the seats” may be a contemporary mantra but, in the process of being good for business, I’ve observed that something else can suffer that’s much more important.
Il grande Richter ha detto e fatto la cosa giusta : perchè precludersi la musica suonando a memoria con questo vezzo di Liszt per dimostrare di essere chissa' cosa... i miei migliori concerti sono stati con lo spartito davanti. Concordo pienamente. La vera protagonista è la Musica ragazzi.
There's a story, probably apocryphal, that Karajan once came to the podium at the Berlin Phil, ready in his mind to conduct the stormy Beethoven 5. Instead, the program said Beethoven 6, a rustic, light, joyful composition, which every player had on their music stands. Seeing Karajan's tempestuous, almost furious, face as he came to the podium, the orchestra realised this was not the look of a man about to conduct the pastoral Beethoven 6, and the concertmaster took control and gave the orchestra the head-nods and lead-ins they needed to co-ordinate. Of course Karajan knew the Pastoral backwards, and he quickly shifted gears, but not before he had given a up- and downbeat to the 5th. Great story if true, though I can't find any verification. Just a story from conducting class at music school.
Great video, great analysis and great pianist Maria... can you tell me where I can watch the whole performance of Maria in that particular concerto? Please?
What I gather from the episode is that, even in an emergency situation, it is prudent for soloist and conductor alike to have at least a short conversation on how the piece goes. Not to do that is disrespect towards the orchestra, in the first place. If one of them came up to the rehearsal with the wrong piece what would have happened?
Not really an 'important' performance - more of a lunchtime rehearsal with audience. You can tell from the conductors rather casual dress, 1:18, with a towel draped over his shoulders. Still an impressive achievement!
it seems you still do not know the details about this story despite it being retold dozens of times.This was NOT a rehearsal but a *lunchtime concert* to an audience of ~2000 people. There were indeed rehearsals with the original pianist, but he was replaced by Pires the at last minute. Chailly asked Pires to play the night before this concert and there was no time for further rehearsals. This concert was part of a series of music events in Vienna and took place at lunchtime in a less formal setting, hence the casual dressing of the conductor and orchestra.
I would love to know what, exactly, a concert pianist is thinking about when he/she is playing. Does the mind wander at all? What is the interplay between mentally seeing the musical score vs. the more motoric operation of muscle memory, or is it an unconscious meandering between the two? Does the mind wander utterly away from the moment? Like wondering "what if Rachmaninoff were sitting in the audience... what would he be thinking? What if my former lover or deceased relatives were in the audience or even listening in mystically from another dimension?"
@@Gabrimedde That is not correct. This concert was part of a series of music events taking place in Vienna, with 3-4 performances each day. The clip is not from a rehearsal but from a lunchtime concert scheduled for that day, with an audience of ~2000 people. The original pianist had to be replaced at last minute and Chailly invited Pires the night before this concert took place.
It's exceptionally unprofessional for the orchestra to not be clear as a bell about the expectations given she was an emergency sub at the time. Exceptional incompetence and unprofessionalism. Typical artistic directors.
@@ColinWrubleski-eq5shWhen Jarrett turned up the only piano at the venue had multiple defects: some keys didn't work, the pedals were defect etc. He had to improvise his concert taking these obstacles into account. It was recored and became his best selling record. Fun fact: as he plays the first tones, the audience laughs: those were the notes of the audience bell of the theatre they just heard, which he used to start his improvisation with.
he makes similar content on his own channel (Ben Laude), indeed it's pretty weird they didn't mention that they were changing host (or maybe they did and I missed it)
@@maxime1768 Yeah, don't like this host, was kinda hoping it was a one time thing, before it was more music related to me, now it seems more like pseudo-smart content.
Oh man, when Maria João Pires put her hand on her face with that look of exasperation. 🤦🏻♀ I can only imagine what that would've felt like. Interesting story that I had never heard of. Thanks for telling it! It would be awesome if you made more "this crazy story in classical piano actually happened" videos!
I listened to 6 minutes of this and had to stop. Maria has played K.466 thousands of times in her career. As Chailly said to her 'You just played it last season'. She learnt it decades ago and had absolutely no problem in pulling it out with her amazing muscle memory. I don't quite understand what this video is doing here. What she did was what any classical performer would have done - carry on. The only special thing about this incident was that it was captured on video, thus leading everyone who isn't a concert pianist to speculate on how she did it
Its a shame you didn't watch it all because a lot of this is addressed in the video (see 9:07 ). The video isn't acting like she is the next coming, it is giving insights into how many performers (like you allude to) are able to do this and how to hone this craft. But lets be honest, if you are playing a piece you haven't touched in 10 months in front of an audience, it is far from an easy thing to expect anyone to do.
And I don't understand the point of your comment. Is it to downplay what she or "any classical performer" do? As for her having performed K466 "thousands of times", COME ON! Exaggeration at its finest! Even Yuja Wang, who has one of the busiest performing schedules and has performed Rach 3 more often than any other concerto, hasn't even come CLOSE to "thousands"!
If you had performance anxiety, it means that you are in the wrong profession. Instead, before a performance, you should be super excited and you cannot wait to show off your musical prowess, to show the audience that this is how it is done and enjoy doing it.
What are your strategies for performance anxiety?
And thanks again to Noa Kageyama - you should all go check out his work!
What really helps me is talking to the audience about the piece (of course only if possible). Since I love to speak in front of people, this has always worked to make me feel much more comfortable before I even start playing.
Edit: You can even see it in my own videos, sometimes I am still talking when the recording started :D
I completely agree - speaking to the audience is so helpful for me as well. And it helps me focus on those things that I love about the repertoire!
-Robert
@@tonebasePiano Exactly.
As I already said, I uploaded videos of me playing Rachmaninoff, and some of them are live performances where the recording started while I was still speaking :D
I always speak about the beauty of Rachmaninoff's music and that I hope to be able to evoke some of these emotions in the audience.
When I played Rach 2 for an audience in my video, 1st movement, I pulled off the best performance I ever had!
I had to give a weather briefing for all the top brass at NAS Marietta, Georgia, USA. There were multiple captains (O6) of the various US Navy fighter squadrons in the room included the Commanding officer of the base, himself. Altogether there were about hundred officers in the briefing room. I was a lowly second class petty officer- an enlisted position, not an officer.
Before the brief I decided to practice my 😅briefing before my chief- (which is a senior enlisted position). He completely disagreed with the format that I was using. I began to get rattled by this insistence to form because my briefing was going to be very soon!!
I had to quickly gather up newly reprinted weather charts and began to scribble up the charts Fronts, low pressure, high pressure etc. I had to scribble them all on at this last second! Thanks Chief!!
To add to this another enlisted girl came in a totally also joined in the feeding frenzy of criticizing my format. She was lower than me and constantly manipulating in a showy, narcissistic manner, while constantly rotating around showing off her figure. This rattled me further , but I was at least able to order her away. She skulked away further stressing me out!! It’s as if she wanted to rob me of my performance confidence along with the chief! It’s still hard to think of the devastating experience that her and the chief’s behavior fostered in me in the last minutes before my brief!!!!!
I had only but one advantage- I had been doing practice weather briefs for years at our Navy weather computer sent and away from an actual weather office. Somehow all this briefing skills came back to me after a gap of years in which I had a baby. I ran to the briefing room. I stuck chats on a briefing board as others briefed on various squadron activities.
It was now my turn!!
I engaged the Commanding Officer with “Captain today your golf forecast is…”
And the room exploded in laughter! I pretended that my scribbled weather charts were not a mess but were clean and tidy. I bluffed every conceivable confidence. I basically acted!!
I won the brief!
I heard back from my chief that they had LIKED MY BRIEF!!
And Chief says to me “See what happens when you follow good form.”
Right, Chief!!
I went for it, and my attitude: "If you can do better, come do it!" Nobody wanted to come to the bench of the pipe organ, so they were stuck with me, and I earned my pay.
A Portuguese (and World) treasure, and the best part, she is still with us! Great video, thanks for sharing.
@ptdive Happy you enjoyed it! She is absolutely a treasure, and is one of my favorite pianists. I hope to see her live someday!
-Robert
@tonebasePiano Amazing what Maria Joa Pires, did, but all proves one important thing, that many people in the world don't acknowledge, and that is the incredible brain ,the True GOD JEHOVAH created, everytime I play my digital piano, iam always reminded humbly speaking how amazing our brains are, created by the almighty God JEHOVAH, greetings from wales uk 😀
I was watching that happen to Tianxu An live. Even the announcers were confused when they read the upcoming programme, then "corrected" themselves, much to the amusement of all the Russian speakers in the hall, including the conductor. All the while Tianxu An stood off-stage, looking a little concerned, with the conductor reassuring him with a smile. I feared the worst, and then it happened. Tianxu An showed nerves of absolute steel and did himself proud.
@LisztyLiszt Wow! That must have been wild to experience in person! Absolutely, what he accomplished in that situation was absolutely amazing.
@@tonebasePiano I was watching the live stream is what I meant. Unfortunately I wasn't actually there. But it was one of those moments when you feel like you're the only person who seems to realise that everyone else is not on the same page - literally!
the fact that he was able to react and to play made me cry.Really.He is a special person.
I haven't had this exact situation. The closest I came was a coaching with flutist Carol Wincenc for my official New York debut recital. I had programmed Copland's Duo for flute and piano. The first movement has an extremely awkward page turn, so I'd set up a copy of page two so that I could turn at a convenient moment. I flipped the page only to discover that the rest of the pages were not in order, the middle had gotten separated. In that moment I made the decision to keep playing from memory; though I had performed the piece before, since it's a duo I had never thought of it as a piece to memorize. I reasoned that it was a good test for a disaster in concert. Somehow I was able to play the first movement without stopping. So I guess I had internalized the music from practice, the prior performance and having listened to the premier recording multiple times.
😳 great story, well done handling that moment!
@@tonebasePiano Thanks. Still doesn't quite measure up to a concert in front of an audience of thousands and: "Wait...KV 466?!?!?"
I am a dual degree student in engineering and piano performance in college (who a few months ago actually had the MASSIVE honour of playing for Maria Joao Pires at a masterclass!). All the points you describe are spot on, whenever you’re learning a new piece or a new programming language - engaging with the material, really making sure you’re concentrating, and make sure you achieve comfort in what you learned before moving onto a new chapter or piece.
Edit: What Artymiw said - that’s EXACTLY what I have been doing to combat stage fright! Now, I still feel “nervous” right before going on stage, but that isn’t really worry that I might fail and cause disappointment to my audience - it’s just shivers of excitement, joy, and gratefulness that I have the ability to share some of my favourite pieces of music with them!
Wow u r very gifted !!
To add some context to the comments below, based on Pires’ complete interview that we see only extracts from: This particular scenario took place at the public rehearsal the afternoon of the day of the concert, not at the concert itself. In the interview she also says that the last time she had played K.466 had been about 10 months prior. This context also explains the actions of Chailly as it is hard to imagine a conductor consciously exposing his/her soloist to a similar kind of risk in an analogous concert situation… Not withstanding the public rehearsal setting, Pires’ feat is extraordinary!
9lll😂
This is such an amazing story! She's just a brilliant pianist.
What a terrifying moment. Yet she prevailed! Brava
This is SO valuable and on target. Nothing more frustrating than working with a teacher who gives no thought to performance anxiety and REFUSES to at least acknowledge that mental glitches , like in golf, is always the largest part of the game/
Absolutely, the mental practice is just as important, if not more so, than the physical.
Strangely I feel like the mix-up really helps to fuel the piece with true dispair. You can feel the stress and hear it
I was lucky to attend her concert in April where she played Beethoven’s 4th. The performance was impeccable. Great respect to her for still being actively on tour and offering the highest standard performances
Wow, it must have been magical to hear her play that live!
one of my mentors Bill Barclay says a very similar thing.. "nerves is excitement without the breath'
That’s a beautiful way to think about it!
In NYC, I studied with German Diez, who immigrated from Cuba to study with Claudio Arrau. They remained close for decades. German told me that when Arrau recorded the Liszt First with Ormandy/Philadelphia, he thought that he was supposed to play the Beethoven Third. On the spot, he proceeded to play the Liszt in one take.
It's impressive. But we shouldn't forget that the d minor is one of the most popular Mozart concertos and Pires for sure played it countless times over decades. After all she's most famous for playing Mozart. There are certainly less frequently played concertos she would have had more problems to pull off from memory without preparation.
After all she stopped in last minute so she would have had very little time to prepare the concerto she had expected, too.
What i do during a crisis is light my hair on fire, take off all my clothes, run around outside naked, screaming “i can’t take this anymore”. But that’s just me.
Sounds like a very good coping strategy...😅
This was by far the best Tonebase video...in subject and cinematic techniques as well
The human brain is powerful! ❤
Thanks for sharing this video! I knew already what problem Mrs. Pires had to Face. And indeed this also happened to Alicia de Larrocha.
She was due to play Mozarts KV 595, but after arriving the conductor told her, she had to play the second Rachmaninoff concerto. Lucky for her she had both the second and third concerto on her repertoire. So she quickly repeated some difficult passages and had a discussion with the conductor, after which she played the full Rach.2 concerto till the end. She must have had a extraordinary memory.
During my fist cello recital, I was playing Saint-Saëns’ Allegro Appasionata and didn’t have the second page of the sheet music. My mind went blank. I remember thinking, “well, I guess I’ll improvise.” I remember making things up. My teacher came up to me after the recital to congratulate me. I was utterly exhausted. I told him how awful I felt about messing up the piece. He looked at me confused, saying, in effect, “you played correctly.” Apparently, my “improvisation” was memorization disguised by fear.
Was fortunate to have a amazing teacher when studying piano in music school. He insisted on me learning to improvise. Would give a single melody and expect a complete improvisation of a piece based on the melody. This came in handy when a performer might have a memory lapse could use their improvisation until getting back on track. Also was expected to improvise a cadenza for the piece. He also advised to have several concertos to preform at any time in case of a last minute change on the concerto being played with the orchestra.
Another beautiful video. The points you make are beautiful. The way you make them is beautiful. The experiences of learning and growth which you describe are in their own way beautiful. The materials and contributions you draw on here are beautiful. And I've decided that the brilliant curly-haired musician guiding us through it all is also rather beautiful.
I didn't knew about this moment from Maria! The video was really inspiring, it was great!
The best part of this story is Maria's face of utter dismay upon realizing she must pull off a Nobel at the Olympics.
She was “simply” gigantic! She was able because she is a true talent!
Beautifully put together - some essence touched upon here. Pires brings tears to my eyes. Just after some nauseating BBC World Service programme on 'manifesting', it's good to get to the miracle without glib answers.
This happened to Lili Kraus, again with Mozart. At one point, she needed to consult the conductor’s score and very briefly explained what had happened. She simply said, “Don’t lose the magic!” She then sat down and completed the concerto. What poise!
I have been with my wife in Tel Aviv auditorium, and Maria Joa Piraes play Beethoven piano concerto n 3 under the direction of Zubin Metha,
Will not forget for a life time this, and after we meet her at the artist exit, as extraordinary is as musician she is as a human being
Miracle happens
sheeeeeeeeeit
I am completely stage-phobic. And it doesn't depress me because I don't hold desire to perform for groups of strangers. And why do something musical that I am not going to enjoy, that I am frankly going to very genuinely and strongly dislike? It serves no purpose. It would be literally the opposite of therapeutic and cause harm, emotional injury. I believe the whole purpose of music, any art, is to create a mutual pleasure response. Anything I write I am very happy for others to take and perform. Others that are at-home on a stage, that are relaxed to be able to perform at their best, and not at their worst due to anxiety and distress 🙂
Wow!
Loved this.
Every musicians nightmare.
From Johnny delly
Thanks for watching!
she is the legend
only the truly greats can handle this on the fly!
I met Chailly in Leipzig. Nice chap. He signed the cd i had of him doing Rach 3 with Argerich. I like Pires Schubert impromptus album called 'Voyage' or some other very appropriate name!
Pires' Schubert is really really really good!
Only 40 min a day, wow! Even if there are 2-3 sessions of 40 min, it's still absolutely impressive.
Yes, I loved this detail! It really reminds you of the importance of being fully present in your practicing!
Are you memorizing what the fingers are doing, or are you memorizing the sound of the music? This is key. With a hard-fought, life long search, I realized that if you memorize the sound, rather than the physical, "fingering" aspect, it is easier to perform. Way easier. The pianist reached back to retrieve from her *memory* how the concerto sounded.
Seymour Bernstein says similar thing. "You are not playing from memory. You are performing with your ears"
watch?v=tPsdMvCPFpI
I don't necessarily agree that sound memorization is necessarily superior - I find that playing from sound memory can result in a certain fragility, particularly for difficult sections which may sound quite different if even some small details are off (e.g. voicing is often crucial in dense textures). The risk for me is then that any small error/disturbance may mess with the sound I'm expecting, throwing me off further and causing more errors, etc. For those sections, I find it very useful to be able to play "mechanically" for a moment to properly recover. So while I generally like to memorize by sound, I intentionally work on memorizing movement information and even some individual notes (e.g. targets of large jumps) for critical passages as well.
That being said, I agree there is a huge difference in my musical expression when playing from sound rather than physical memory, so I aim to use the former as much as possible, just while also having the option to consciously take control and focus on the physical motions if necessary.
I'm only an amateur player by the way, so take all of the above with a grain of salt - probably less relevant for professionals who practice until they never make mistakes :P
I love you, Maria :) You've got guts! :) :) :)
Estive no recital dela na sala São Paulo e é incrível como ela tira tantas cores de um instrumento preto e branco
❤ Thank you
I still miss the other guy, but this guy is starting to grow on me. I'm pretty sure it's the hair...it just fits the overall idea...
I hope the other guy comes back for some videos, though
@@jadalmatamoros6368 he started his own channel, and it's doing pretty well. look up Ben Laude
I think at first he was trying to lean into comedy too hard and it wasn't quite working, but he's finding his style (and it makes jokes land better when they do happen)
I have seen this exceptional video so many times ! It still inspires me as a musician, as a sports performer and as a human ne being.
And what management of the situation by the great and reverred conductor, Ricardo Chailly ! He found the exact few words to address the situation while conducting !
What you have shared can be extended to various similar contests.
Thank you.
One little remark:
when she's talking about having "average memory", she's clearly not talking about average memory as compared to all humans in all walks of life. It's implied (and later specified) that she is talking about her memory as compared to other professional musicians. This is quite a different group of people, with a way higher demand on and training in memorization.
Like, a semi-professional tennis player is likely average in the class of semi-professional and professional tennis players, but is better than 99.999% of the humans who ever walked or will walk the Earth.
You love the sound of your own voice. Wish I just had seen the episode. Well, remember this was a dress rehearsal. So she could allow herself to go with the flow.
Perfect Play - i Like This piece ❤ See you
I get nightmares where I’m coming onstage and suddenly notice that, by the way, I’m totally naked.
@mylesjordan9970 perhaps it’s for the best that there’s no video evidence of this nightmare coming true for any famous pianists!
@@tonebasePiano Videos haven’t been necessary for some years. Often a given performer’s audience appeal is based on distractions from what they’re actually doing-distractions that can easily belong more in Times Square than in Carnegie Hall. “Whatever gets butts in the seats” may be a contemporary mantra but, in the process of being good for business, I’ve observed that something else can suffer that’s much more important.
Il grande Richter ha detto e fatto la cosa giusta : perchè precludersi la musica suonando a memoria con questo vezzo di Liszt per dimostrare di essere chissa' cosa... i miei migliori concerti sono stati con lo spartito davanti. Concordo pienamente. La vera protagonista è la Musica ragazzi.
There's a story, probably apocryphal, that Karajan once came to the podium at the Berlin Phil, ready in his mind to conduct the stormy Beethoven 5. Instead, the program said Beethoven 6, a rustic, light, joyful composition, which every player had on their music stands. Seeing Karajan's tempestuous, almost furious, face as he came to the podium, the orchestra realised this was not the look of a man about to conduct the pastoral Beethoven 6, and the concertmaster took control and gave the orchestra the head-nods and lead-ins they needed to co-ordinate. Of course Karajan knew the Pastoral backwards, and he quickly shifted gears, but not before he had given a up- and downbeat to the 5th. Great story if true, though I can't find any verification. Just a story from conducting class at music school.
She's an amazing talent who has so many interesting interpretations. Will this episode be the only thing people remember? Can we let it go already?
Quite inspiring!
Great video, great analysis and great pianist Maria... can you tell me where I can watch the whole performance of Maria in that particular concerto? Please?
I must admit that I also have not been able to find it. If anyone knows, chime in!
What I gather from the episode is that, even in an emergency situation, it is prudent for soloist and conductor alike to have at least a short conversation on how the piece goes. Not to do that is disrespect towards the orchestra, in the first place. If one of them came up to the rehearsal with the wrong piece what would have happened?
Not really an 'important' performance - more of a lunchtime rehearsal with audience. You can tell from the conductors rather casual dress, 1:18, with a towel draped over his shoulders.
Still an impressive achievement!
it seems you still do not know the details about this story despite it being retold dozens of times.This was NOT a rehearsal but a *lunchtime concert* to an audience of ~2000 people. There were indeed rehearsals with the original pianist, but he was replaced by Pires the at last minute. Chailly asked Pires to play the night before this concert and there was no time for further rehearsals. This concert was part of a series of music events in Vienna and took place at lunchtime in a less formal setting, hence the casual dressing of the conductor and orchestra.
Great video!! 😊
I would love to know what, exactly, a concert pianist is thinking about when he/she is playing. Does the mind wander at all? What is the interplay between mentally seeing the musical score vs. the more motoric operation of muscle memory, or is it an unconscious meandering between the two? Does the mind wander utterly away from the moment? Like wondering "what if Rachmaninoff were sitting in the audience... what would he be thinking? What if my former lover or deceased relatives were in the audience or even listening in mystically from another dimension?"
I would have fainted😂🤣😂
I saw this video about a year ago.
Good thing it has such a long intro.
The late, great Clifford Curzon always used to play with a score. Pires could have done the same!
❤❤❤
We wonder if @NPOKlassiek can release (again) the concert recording?
so brutal... omg
So they had no rehersal or conversations about which concerto they were performing that evening? Nobody had scores in their hands?
@@Gabrimedde That is not correct. This concert was part of a series of music events taking place in Vienna, with 3-4 performances each day. The clip is not from a rehearsal but from a lunchtime concert scheduled for that day, with an audience of ~2000 people. The original pianist had to be replaced at last minute and Chailly invited Pires the night before this concert took place.
I’m a pianist and I really don’t think it was such a big deal. She has been playing it for 50+ years and played it earlier that year.
It's exceptionally unprofessional for the orchestra to not be clear as a bell about the expectations given she was an emergency sub at the time.
Exceptional incompetence and unprofessionalism. Typical artistic directors.
the other perfect example of this is Kieth's Jarrett's Koln concert.. the back story is amazing..
What’s the story re: Keith Jarrett Koln Concert?
More details, please...!^^
Wow - that would make a great video, thanks for the idea ☺️
@@ColinWrubleski-eq5shWhen Jarrett turned up the only piano at the venue had multiple defects: some keys didn't work, the pedals were defect etc. He had to improvise his concert taking these obstacles into account. It was recored and became his best selling record. Fun fact: as he plays the first tones, the audience laughs: those were the notes of the audience bell of the theatre they just heard, which he used to start his improvisation with.
Must not be a super formal concert. The conductor had a towel around his neck, like creepy Levine.
we don't know where memories or information is stored.. don't assume that it exists somewhere in the 'brain'
actually we do know
As a classical musician this is terrible. I couldn't imagine
Definitely not staged.
Had a panic attack just watching this!
Who doesn't want to major in performance psychology
Btw what happened with the other guy ? he disapeared out of the channel out of nowhere it seems.
he makes similar content on his own channel (Ben Laude), indeed it's pretty weird they didn't mention that they were changing host (or maybe they did and I missed it)
@@maxime1768 Yeah, don't like this host, was kinda hoping it was a one time thing, before it was more music related to me, now it seems more like pseudo-smart content.
@@matheusbarrelWe have the best of both worlds since Ben Laude has his own channel. Lots of great content there, too.
Again?
Oh man, when Maria João Pires put her hand on her face with that look of exasperation. 🤦🏻♀ I can only imagine what that would've felt like.
Interesting story that I had never heard of. Thanks for telling it! It would be awesome if you made more "this crazy story in classical piano actually happened" videos!
Absolutely, it’s terrifyingly relatable
What a lsdy!
I listened to 6 minutes of this and had to stop. Maria has played K.466 thousands of times in her career. As Chailly said to her 'You just played it last season'. She learnt it decades ago and had absolutely no problem in pulling it out with her amazing muscle memory. I don't quite understand what this video is doing here. What she did was what any classical performer would have done - carry on. The only special thing about this incident was that it was captured on video, thus leading everyone who isn't a concert pianist to speculate on how she did it
Maybe it is not of interest to you, but last half of this video is about tricks to improve memorizing your piano music.
She herself doesn’t see this as such a big deal.
Its a shame you didn't watch it all because a lot of this is addressed in the video (see 9:07 ). The video isn't acting like she is the next coming, it is giving insights into how many performers (like you allude to) are able to do this and how to hone this craft. But lets be honest, if you are playing a piece you haven't touched in 10 months in front of an audience, it is far from an easy thing to expect anyone to do.
You missed a great video, then. There is a lot of info in this video. Check it out!
And I don't understand the point of your comment. Is it to downplay what she or "any classical performer" do? As for her having performed K466 "thousands of times", COME ON! Exaggeration at its finest! Even Yuja Wang, who has one of the busiest performing schedules and has performed Rach 3 more often than any other concerto, hasn't even come CLOSE to "thousands"!
it does just go on and on and on.....SKIP
Overrated.
i heard an inside story that it was staged....
If you had performance anxiety, it means that you are in the wrong profession. Instead, before a performance, you should be super excited and you cannot wait to show off your musical prowess, to show the audience that this is how it is done and enjoy doing it.