This video is just the tip of the iceberg of Chopin content I'll be producing this fall in partnership with the Chopin Foundation of the United States. Coming October 2nd is The Chopin Podcast - a 12-part series dedicated to all of Chopin's major compositional genres, with each episode starring Garrick Ohlsson. This is all in anticipation of the National Chopin Competition, to be held in January 2025. I will be there in Miami to host the livestreams for every round of the Competition, which you can watch on the US Chopin Foundation's UA-cam channel (subscribe now!): www.youtube.com/@chopinfoundationoftheunite8079 To learn more about the Chopin Foundation, and the US National Chopin Competition, check out their website: chopin.org For more on The Chopin Podcast, visit chopinpodcast.com
@@benlawdy Glad to hear that! I've seen scam posters. BUT yes on the metronome issue. A Dutch musician is on the path of trying to convince us that the metronome markings we see in Beethoven and Chopin are to be whole beat and not for each click of the metronome. (And I just bought a metronome from Amazon yesterday. I disabled the bell.) He also reacted negatively to my comment that Seymour Bernstein made about Chopin's piano octave is narrower than our piano octave today. This was from the video where I learned the Bernstein is Chopin. Who knew!
It’s funny - Garrick and I talked about those accents, and he said he never understood them. The lower phantom melody is more “melodic” than those syncopated D’s. But I’m with you, I like when a pianist plays the accents. Go check out the interview I did with Avery Gagliano for tonebase. SHE does them, and we talked out it.
As a polish amateur pianist who slightly regrets quitting music school in my teens, I have been absolutely in love with all your collaborations with Mr. Ohlson! I can’t say how much I’ve learned over the months I’ve been watching, on Tonebase and now here, every video is a revelation. Thank you so much. I’m very much looking forward to the podcast!
I will always love Garrick Ohlsson not only as a musician/artist but for me a teacher at SFCM. I graduated as part of the pre college program back in May of this year and now I'm attending Eastman School Of Music. I feel I owe a certain gratitude toward Ohlsson for where I am now.
Had the privilege of seeing Mr. Ohlsson when he gave a recital at my school (in a college town, mind you - so awesome that he came here!). He gave an all-Chopin program if I remember correctly, with an encore of the beautiful Nocturne op. 9 no. 3 in B major. I played that piece for my junior recital a couple weeks later, and man did I have some new ideas after hearing him! Such a clear sound and deliberate usage of pedal. Also mesmerizing to watch his arm movements as he glides up and down the keyboard. So free and natural and but you can easily tell that he has put an incredible amount of thought into his technique and sound quality. Very kind and welcoming to chat with after too. He is way bigger in person lol.
It would be fascinating to hear maestro Ohlsson speak about the Godowsky Chopin studies from the perspective of how these build upon and extend Chopin's technical innovations.
Garrick is one of those pianists that sound great on recordings……….and surpasses all of your expectations during a live recital. I still can’t forget the glorious Busoni/Liszt recital he gave at Carnegie over 10 years ago. His recording of the complete works by Chopin are all “reference” recordings, but the Mazurkas, especially, are in another realm. Honestly, everything that Mr. Ohlsson performs is on the highest level.
This video is a rare gem - it's a close insight into the actual specific aspects of Chopin's music and technique. While many listeners acknowledge the complexity of this music and recognizes the virtuosity of players who can perform it in a perceived beautiful way, an average listener or even a piano hobbyist (like me) can't really digest the specific difficulties or tricks. These well explained and demonstrated examples allow to appreciate performances to a much greater extent. Thanks a lot for organizing this talk too!
Chopin is a world unto itself - a complete sub-genre in the history of Western music. There is so much complexity in his musical genius, all designed to take full advantage of an incredible instrument.
Mr. Ohlsson is a treasure! Thank you Ben for facilitating us getting to hear/learn from him, back in the Tonebase days and now in this new series. Can't wait for the podcast!!
Garrick Ohlsson is the kind of teacher I wish I'd had at Juilliard. In fact it was a friend of Garrick's who was also a friend of my family, who was also a mentor and even tuned our piano! And it was Garrick's LP of his live performances from his victory at the Chopin competition in Warsaw that inspired me to learn Chopin's Sonata op. 58, which I played at my Juilliard entrance exam. So even though we've never met, I feel a connection and a debt of gratitude for Garrick Ohlsson's great playing, long career, and now his great teaching. If you're reading this, Garrick, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Found out about point 2 recently when playing the C minor and coming across the big 5-note chord in Bar 2. Literally googled 'Op 28, no 20 big chord' and thankfully someone on reddit had already answered this question.
Garrick Ohlson is appearing an amazing pedagog as well as pianist. His wording is thorough but simple and with him playing Chopins pieces to demonstrate what he has juct covered, Wow, I feel like I attended a top notch pedagogy class for so much about Chopin's inventive techniques ! Thanks and very greatful for it 🙏🏻
Gorgeous piano, catching a glimpse of the fallboard, looks like Bosendorfer, clearly old and expertly rebuilt and maintained. I wonder what kind of hammers.
Garrick is the finest Chopinist of our age and we are so privileged to have him, but in my heart's desire, I want a video of Seymour giving his alternative viewpoint to everything that has been said 🪮
Great video once again! Mr. Ohlson is such a wonderfully warm and generous musician-person, and it's always a gift to take part of his reflexions. Many thanks!
Thanks, Ben Laude, for making this irresistibly wonderful artist so available to his fans. I was on reruns of all the Tonebase lessons and videos when this latest venture appeared. I’ve now watched #9 of the Innovations about 126 times. Love the overhead camera work of Garrick’s (if that’s not too familiar) playing. ❤
In an older video some years ago, Tonebase explained that the Schumann story is an old wives' tale. (Even going as far as saying that his actual wife Clara was furious with people spreading it.) We don't know what caused the injury and likely never will. What we do know for certain is that finger-strengthening devices could ruin hands in all kinds of ways except for the specific way in which Schumann's hands were ruined. For further details, google Eric Sams' 1971 article in The Musical Times, from which I will offer this excerpt: "The traditional explanation that a mechanical device for finger-strengthening permanently disabled a finger of Schumann's right hand is at variance with his own testimony in 1830-9, and with the recollection of his widow in 1889. "Its sole source seems to be a book published in 1853 by Friedrich Wieck, which offers a passing comment on 'the fingertormentor'. The assumption has been that this same device caused lifelong injury. But Wieck does not say so. Nor does he name Schumann in this context, though he does elsewhere in the book. In any event Wieck is not usually rated the most reliable of witnesses about his son-in-law. "Schumann the inventor of mechanical devices is also an unfamiliar figure. There were plenty of finger-strengtheners on the market at the time. According to Bötticher, Schumann ordered one in 1837, which would seem a strangely masochistic request from someone who had spent seven years as its crippled victim. "Further, Clara Schumann's only clear recollection of the injury was that it was _not_ caused by any such device. Moreover, she was quite sure that the residual damage was to the _index_ finger - which would not in normal circumstances have needed strengthening. "Schumann himself first refers to the trouble as an affliction of the hand, and only later as affecting a finger. He described it in such words as _Schwäche_ (weakness) or _Lähmung_ (paralysis), which connote loss of motor function from, say, rheumatism, rather than injury. He never mentions any sprain or pain; for the first two years there is little indication of even a temporary disablement. "But in 1839 he told an admirer of his music that he had lost the full use of that hand: 'some fingers (no doubt because of too much writing and playing in earlier years) have become quite weak, so that I can hardly use them'. If that were really the cause, there should be many other recorded instances of such a disability; but Schumann's is unique. "Perhaps he was too embarrassed to mention the use of a device. But one wonders what device short of a thumbscrew could possibly have had so prolonged and crippling an effect; and how such an effect could possibly have been chronic before it was acute, and harmed the hand before it hurt a finger. The textual evidence surely suggests that the hand trouble was gradual and its cause unknown."
@@alex_evstyugov thanks for all the info. I don’t realize it wasn’t substantiated. Indeed the story is quite prevalent among musicians and even scholarly types. I suppose it has a utility in earning against the unnatural pursuit of finger independence, but it certainly doesn’t honor Schumann’s actual biography!
That excerpt you chose from 4th Scherzo to demonstrate how Chopin's music, as far as practicable, "fits into" the hand, it is truly a delight to play, it sounds scintillating. I've, in my inner world, interpreted them to be giggles following some slightly risqué phrase (which is repeated but with the last note sharped, like a play on words - and followed by another set of giggles). That eruptive forte in both hands at the bottom of that page sounds to me like a true laugh - the sort when you have to lean against lamp-posts and wipe your eyes. It always gives me a pick-me-up playing those and making them as giggly as I possibly can.
A beautiful and touching analysis shared by a gentle soul which loves what another gentle and delicate soul created. I feel only gratitude for videos like this one! Subscribed immediately to the podcast...
#11 Chopin was very precise in his pedal notation, and I regret that he did not indicate where he wanted the floating pedal, although it is usually easy to guess.
Garrick, Ben, as to innovation #12, catching a dissonance in the pedal and then the example of prelude #23: to me that "dissonant" has always been the logical start of the prelude #24, so it points ahead: which was maybe rare but not unheard of in composers before Chopin. That's only based on my hearing, I did not study the notes of the preludes. When I hear that "hanging dissonance" I immediately sit upright for the incredible passion of the 24th prelude ...
I think so too, but it’s worth noting that D minor is an unusual tonality for an F dominant 7th chord to “resolve” to. The E-flat falls to D, yes, but the other tones are not in tension with the d minor triad. In any case, there is a tradition of playing individual preludes on their own, including the F major. There’s no obligation to continue to the next prelude. Another interesting thing to note is that this harkens back to an older tradition of “preluding” where keyboardists wouldn’t bring closure to improvised preludes, but ended with a sonority that required some continuation or resolution in the larger work that followed. Back to your point, in this prelude (and only this one), I think Chopin is doing just that.
I’m surprised he didn’t mention how Chopin realized the 2nd finger was the pivot and by using that you can cover a wider range on the keyboard examples: prelude in d minor op 28 no 4 and etude f minor op 10 no 9
Oh that’s a good one! Yes Chopin simply came up with too many novel pianistic maneuvers to cover in a digestible video! I guess I’ll have to make a 12-part podcast series that continues to delve into them ;)
Thank you for sharing this enjoyable and interesting video, Mr. Laude! I always enjoy hearing whatever Garrick Ohlsson has to say about playing the piano and piano music, and this video is no exception. I hope for lots more to come in the future! How wonderful it must be able to play the fioritura in Chopin's music. My right hand could never manage it, not to mention the problem of how you keep the left hand going more or less steadily while the right hand is suddenly supposed to play an explosion of notes over that steady left hand. Not for my poor digits unfortunately. But delightful to hear as played by Mr. Ohlsson and other pianists whose fingers are more "compliant."
The crazy thing is, so many of these techniques seem to be written into the music; ignoring ideology, they are the most natural physiological approaches for handling many passages!
Nice, thanks! But many of the mentioned finger techniques were actually prevalent in Bach times. For example, using thumb on black keys, substituting fingers in the same key, crossing the long fingers above the short, sliding from black to white (and even from white to white - a very common technique on organ). They were very handy as the organ keyboard is quite shallow, comparing to the piano keyboard. I believe, those techniques were banned after Bach, in Haydn/Mozart time, and were rediscovered by Chopin.
This video is just the tip of the iceberg of Chopin content I'll be producing this fall in partnership with the Chopin Foundation of the United States. Coming October 2nd is The Chopin Podcast - a 12-part series dedicated to all of Chopin's major compositional genres, with each episode starring Garrick Ohlsson.
This is all in anticipation of the National Chopin Competition, to be held in January 2025. I will be there in Miami to host the livestreams for every round of the Competition, which you can watch on the US Chopin Foundation's UA-cam channel (subscribe now!): www.youtube.com/@chopinfoundationoftheunite8079
To learn more about the Chopin Foundation, and the US National Chopin Competition, check out their website: chopin.org
For more on The Chopin Podcast, visit chopinpodcast.com
Laude and Lawdy?? Confusing.
@@ds61821 the first is how it’s spelled. The second is the phonetic pronunciation, since it doesn’t sound the way it looks.
@@benlawdy Yes but it's not the same person?
@@ds61821 I am me; yes, same person.
@@benlawdy Glad to hear that! I've seen scam posters. BUT yes on the metronome issue. A Dutch musician is on the path of trying to convince us that the metronome markings we see in Beethoven and Chopin are to be whole beat and not for each click of the metronome. (And I just bought a metronome from Amazon yesterday. I disabled the bell.) He also reacted negatively to my comment that Seymour Bernstein made about Chopin's piano octave is narrower than our piano octave today. This was from the video where I learned the Bernstein is Chopin. Who knew!
double thumbing is one of those oddly satisfying technics at the piano
👍. 👍👍👍👍👍👍😊
"Chopin is the greatest of them all, for with the piano alone he discovered everything."
- Claude Debussy
Chopin would very likely disagree and politely point towards Bach.
Garrick Ohlson, what a friendly, sophisticated and warm person! and amazing knowledge from direct experience, thanks for sharing.
Yes, Chopin, almost composed nothing but piano music, but what craftsmanship, refinement, beauty and feeling in almost every one of his pieces.
9:54 It's interesting how many pianists ignore Chopin's accents in favour of bringing out the "phantom melody". I wonder when that became so popular.
It’s funny - Garrick and I talked about those accents, and he said he never understood them. The lower phantom melody is more “melodic” than those syncopated D’s.
But I’m with you, I like when a pianist plays the accents. Go check out the interview I did with Avery Gagliano for tonebase. SHE does them, and we talked out it.
As a polish amateur pianist who slightly regrets quitting music school in my teens, I have been absolutely in love with all your collaborations with Mr. Ohlson! I can’t say how much I’ve learned over the months I’ve been watching, on Tonebase and now here, every video is a revelation. Thank you so much. I’m very much looking forward to the podcast!
I have no idea why Ben left Tonebase, but I'm not mad about it when we're getting this high level of content.
Tonebase piano viewership tanked after he left
This has to be one of the best piano lessons I have ever experienced as I advance into my arthritic 60s.
I will always love Garrick Ohlsson not only as a musician/artist but for me a teacher at SFCM. I graduated as part of the pre college program back in May of this year and now I'm attending Eastman School Of Music. I feel I owe a certain gratitude toward Ohlsson for where I am now.
Garrick is an absolute powerhouse
Had the privilege of seeing Mr. Ohlsson when he gave a recital at my school (in a college town, mind you - so awesome that he came here!). He gave an all-Chopin program if I remember correctly, with an encore of the beautiful Nocturne op. 9 no. 3 in B major. I played that piece for my junior recital a couple weeks later, and man did I have some new ideas after hearing him! Such a clear sound and deliberate usage of pedal. Also mesmerizing to watch his arm movements as he glides up and down the keyboard. So free and natural and but you can easily tell that he has put an incredible amount of thought into his technique and sound quality. Very kind and welcoming to chat with after too. He is way bigger in person lol.
It would be fascinating to hear maestro Ohlsson speak about the Godowsky Chopin studies from the perspective of how these build upon and extend Chopin's technical innovations.
Saw the title of innovation 9 and I immediately shouted ballade 4!
Probably my favourite passage in the entire Chopin repertoire
Garrick is one of those pianists that sound great on recordings……….and surpasses all of your expectations during a live recital. I still can’t forget the glorious Busoni/Liszt recital he gave at Carnegie over 10 years ago. His recording of the complete works by Chopin are all “reference” recordings, but the Mazurkas, especially, are in another realm. Honestly, everything that Mr. Ohlsson performs is on the highest level.
Garrick Ohlson. Wow! Great teaching from one of the great masters!
This video is a rare gem - it's a close insight into the actual specific aspects of Chopin's music and technique. While many listeners acknowledge the complexity of this music and recognizes the virtuosity of players who can perform it in a perceived beautiful way, an average listener or even a piano hobbyist (like me) can't really digest the specific difficulties or tricks. These well explained and demonstrated examples allow to appreciate performances to a much greater extent. Thanks a lot for organizing this talk too!
So there, Glen Gould!
Great you are forging new partnerships Ben and continue to bring us awesome content. Thankyou !
Chopin is a world unto itself - a complete sub-genre in the history of Western music. There is so much complexity in his musical genius, all designed to take full advantage of an incredible instrument.
It's HEEEERE. The renowned great pianist Garrick Ohlsson, Thank you so much for your in-depth insights. Thank you Ben for delivering!
Mr. Ohlsson sharing his wisdom once again 😊
I love this pianist for decades such brilliant musician !! ❤❤❤
Mr. Ohlsson is a treasure! Thank you Ben for facilitating us getting to hear/learn from him, back in the Tonebase days and now in this new series. Can't wait for the podcast!!
Garrick Ohlsson is the kind of teacher I wish I'd had at Juilliard. In fact it was a friend of Garrick's who was also a friend of my family, who was also a mentor and even tuned our piano! And it was Garrick's LP of his live performances from his victory at the Chopin competition in Warsaw that inspired me to learn Chopin's Sonata op. 58, which I played at my Juilliard entrance exam. So even though we've never met, I feel a connection and a debt of gratitude for Garrick Ohlsson's great playing, long career, and now his great teaching. If you're reading this, Garrick, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Every word is gold.
Great, using snippets of your video-interview in my presentation video about the new pianoforte keyboard I have designed! Right on time!
I took innovation 2 to a whole new level. I can strike 2 keys with each finger.
Thank you very much, Maestro Ohlsson.
Mr Ohlsson is a true master, we are lucky to have these kinds of recordings for us AND future generations , thank you 🙏🏼
Watching this man's hands is like watching a dove float in the air.
I saw him play the Busoni concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra (Gilbert) about 5 years ago. Unforgettable!
Found out about point 2 recently when playing the C minor and coming across the big 5-note chord in Bar 2. Literally googled 'Op 28, no 20 big chord' and thankfully someone on reddit had already answered this question.
I finally understand all the things I do to be able to play Chopin. Finger sliding, changing fingers on the same note etc. Thanks.
In his youth he was a sexy , exciting, showman, now he is a warm, engaging teacher with a sense of humor.
Garrick Ohlson is appearing an amazing pedagog as well as pianist. His wording is thorough but simple and with him playing Chopins pieces to demonstrate what he has juct covered, Wow, I feel like I attended a top notch pedagogy class for so much about Chopin's inventive techniques ! Thanks and very greatful for it 🙏🏻
Gorgeous piano, catching a glimpse of the fallboard, looks like Bosendorfer, clearly old and expertly rebuilt and maintained. I wonder what kind of hammers.
I really wish this chap had taught me the piano, he makes everything complex, so simple and logical ....
Garrick is the finest Chopinist of our age and we are so privileged to have him, but in my heart's desire, I want a video of Seymour giving his alternative viewpoint to everything that has been said 🪮
This was excellent! Love it how he plays opus 25 5 at a speed Chopin probably played it.
What talent! Wish I had a teacher like Mr. Ohisson.
Or his hands--I read somewhere a long time ago that his hands span a twelfth. Must be nice!
Great video once again! Mr. Ohlson is such a wonderfully warm and generous musician-person, and it's always a gift to take part of his reflexions. Many thanks!
Thanks, Ben Laude, for making this irresistibly wonderful artist so available to his fans. I was on reruns of all the Tonebase lessons and videos when this latest venture appeared. I’ve now watched #9 of the Innovations about 126 times. Love the overhead camera work of Garrick’s (if that’s not too familiar) playing. ❤
Wonderful. I could listen to him talk about, and play, Chopin allllllll day. Gorgeous piano too. 😍
Many thanks for the masterclass! Maestro Ohlsson has given an engaging and eloquent exegesis of Chopin.
GOD! This video is f*cking amazing! I love it! It's truly a free master class in Chopin! THANKS!
The 2:01 transition is just sooo satisfying
In an older video some years ago, Tonebase explained that the Schumann story is an old wives' tale. (Even going as far as saying that his actual wife Clara was furious with people spreading it.)
We don't know what caused the injury and likely never will. What we do know for certain is that finger-strengthening devices could ruin hands in all kinds of ways except for the specific way in which Schumann's hands were ruined.
For further details, google Eric Sams' 1971 article in The Musical Times, from which I will offer this excerpt:
"The traditional explanation that a mechanical device for finger-strengthening permanently disabled a finger of Schumann's right hand is at variance with his own testimony in 1830-9, and with the recollection of his widow in 1889.
"Its sole source seems to be a book published in 1853 by Friedrich Wieck, which offers a passing comment on 'the fingertormentor'. The assumption has been that this same device caused lifelong injury. But Wieck does not say so. Nor does he name Schumann in this context, though he does elsewhere in the book. In any event Wieck is not usually rated the most reliable of witnesses about his son-in-law.
"Schumann the inventor of mechanical devices is also an unfamiliar figure. There were plenty of finger-strengtheners on the market at the time. According to Bötticher, Schumann ordered one in 1837, which would seem a strangely masochistic request from someone who had spent seven years as its crippled victim.
"Further, Clara Schumann's only clear recollection of the injury was that it was _not_ caused by any such device. Moreover, she was quite sure that the residual damage was to the _index_ finger - which would not in normal circumstances have needed strengthening.
"Schumann himself first refers to the trouble as an affliction of the hand, and only later as affecting a finger. He described it in such words as _Schwäche_ (weakness) or _Lähmung_ (paralysis), which connote loss of motor function from, say, rheumatism, rather than injury. He never mentions any sprain or pain; for the first two years there is little indication of even a temporary disablement.
"But in 1839 he told an admirer of his music that he had lost the full use of that hand: 'some fingers (no doubt because of too much writing and playing in earlier years) have become quite weak, so that I can hardly use them'. If that were really the cause, there should be many other recorded instances of such a disability; but Schumann's is unique.
"Perhaps he was too embarrassed to mention the use of a device. But one wonders what device short of a thumbscrew could possibly have had so prolonged and crippling an effect; and how such an effect could possibly have been chronic before it was acute, and harmed the hand before it hurt a finger. The textual evidence surely suggests that the hand trouble was gradual and its cause unknown."
@@alex_evstyugov thanks for all the info. I don’t realize it wasn’t substantiated. Indeed the story is quite prevalent among musicians and even scholarly types. I suppose it has a utility in earning against the unnatural pursuit of finger independence, but it certainly doesn’t honor Schumann’s actual biography!
Excellent video on the greatest of piano composers.
What an incredible video. Thank you very much.
That was illuminating and beautiful, thanks for the huge insights in the master!
I love the beautiful piece from the marche funebre. I first bought that by Arthur Rubinstein nearly 70 years ago.
That excerpt you chose from 4th Scherzo to demonstrate how Chopin's music, as far as practicable, "fits into" the hand, it is truly a delight to play, it sounds scintillating. I've, in my inner world, interpreted them to be giggles following some slightly risqué phrase (which is repeated but with the last note sharped, like a play on words - and followed by another set of giggles). That eruptive forte in both hands at the bottom of that page sounds to me like a true laugh - the sort when you have to lean against lamp-posts and wipe your eyes.
It always gives me a pick-me-up playing those and making them as giggly as I possibly can.
That was a wonderful lesson. Thank you maestro Ohlsson.
A beautiful and touching analysis shared by a gentle soul which loves what another gentle and delicate soul created. I feel only gratitude for videos like this one! Subscribed immediately to the podcast...
So refreshing to hear his playing enhanced by the warm Bösendorfer-Sound...
So hyped for this month!
The 17th Invention was making pop culture fall in love with his music more than anything else 😂❤
This just makes me very happy!
#11 Chopin was very precise in his pedal notation, and I regret that he did not indicate where he wanted the floating pedal, although it is usually easy to guess.
amazing video, i knew most of these, but did not know they were from Chopin
Looking forward to the Showpan podcast!
The Video is 10/10. thx 🔥
I'm surprised measure 12 of the A major prelude isn't mentioned during the 'playing two notes with the thumb' section; it's a rather famous example!
@@WBensburg now I’m kicking myself because that is kind of the perfect example
@@benlawdy Well, just because Garrick (BTW, we attended the same music school as children) didn't mention it doesn't mean you should kick yourself. :)
That E Major Scherzo is so fun to play!
Beautiful person... Garrick Ohlson.
Garrick, Ben, as to innovation #12, catching a dissonance in the pedal and then the example of prelude #23: to me that "dissonant" has always been the logical start of the prelude #24, so it points ahead: which was maybe rare but not unheard of in composers before Chopin. That's only based on my hearing, I did not study the notes of the preludes. When I hear that "hanging dissonance" I immediately sit upright for the incredible passion of the 24th prelude ...
I think so too, but it’s worth noting that D minor is an unusual tonality for an F dominant 7th chord to “resolve” to. The E-flat falls to D, yes, but the other tones are not in tension with the d minor triad. In any case, there is a tradition of playing individual preludes on their own, including the F major. There’s no obligation to continue to the next prelude. Another interesting thing to note is that this harkens back to an older tradition of “preluding” where keyboardists wouldn’t bring closure to improvised preludes, but ended with a sonority that required some continuation or resolution in the larger work that followed. Back to your point, in this prelude (and only this one), I think Chopin is doing just that.
Everytime i hear that passage from Ballad 1 im elevated and dying inside at the same time.
One of the most useful technique insights I've seen! Thank you!!
Wonderful video from one of my favorite pianists. Thank you!
I loved this video Ben, please keep putting such great content ❤
Really enjoyed this one. And to think Chopin did not have a piano teacher 😮. Btw where can we get that awesome t-shirt?😂
That hummingbird fingers sound effect happen when I was listening to that piece bunch of birds flew across at that moment it was amazing synchronized
This channel is a hidden gem
I’m surprised he didn’t mention how Chopin realized the 2nd finger was the pivot and by using that you can cover a wider range on the keyboard examples: prelude in d minor op 28 no 4 and etude f minor op 10 no 9
Oh that’s a good one! Yes Chopin simply came up with too many novel pianistic maneuvers to cover in a digestible video! I guess I’ll have to make a 12-part podcast series that continues to delve into them ;)
that transition at 8:42 though
Love it! Great insight!
Very good, thanks!
Thank you for sharing this enjoyable and interesting video, Mr. Laude! I always enjoy hearing whatever Garrick Ohlsson has to say about playing the piano and piano music, and this video is no exception. I hope for lots more to come in the future! How wonderful it must be able to play the fioritura in Chopin's music. My right hand could never manage it, not to mention the problem of how you keep the left hand going more or less steadily while the right hand is suddenly supposed to play an explosion of notes over that steady left hand. Not for my poor digits unfortunately. But delightful to hear as played by Mr. Ohlsson and other pianists whose fingers are more "compliant."
Big thanks for uploading such content!
Wonderful, brilliant video by a master! Thank you.
The crazy thing is, so many of these techniques seem to be written into the music; ignoring ideology, they are the most natural physiological approaches for handling many passages!
Garrick Ohlsson ♥
Wow truly well organized video!
Nice, thanks! But many of the mentioned finger techniques were actually prevalent in Bach times. For example, using thumb on black keys, substituting fingers in the same key, crossing the long fingers above the short, sliding from black to white (and even from white to white - a very common technique on organ). They were very handy as the organ keyboard is quite shallow, comparing to the piano keyboard.
I believe, those techniques were banned after Bach, in Haydn/Mozart time, and were rediscovered by Chopin.
1000 likes in a day! Well done Ben & Garrick 👏👏👏 very well deserved for such high-quality content
Eager to ear more
I'd love to have those tshirts!
that was incredible to listen to thanx for great content 😊
Wow, love it!!
People playing on the lumatone be like: oh that is a problem for you?🧐
Wow I've been using my thumb on black keys since day one and I always thought it was wrong! Thank you for letting me know it's not! 🍻
Fantastic video!
Love that shirt, Ben!
amazing video! thank you 🙏🎹
oh my god i need the shirt you wore in the outro
It was so exciting!
Funny one of them was sitting lower down.
I recently lowered my seat and found it way easier to voice some passages I used to struggled with.
Thats great content
i was quite surprised that some of the ideas introduced in the video were horowitz's favorite method (maybe exaggerated)
Regarding the equalization of finger #4, Karl Leimer and Walter Gieseking called it "shifting the weight" in their book titled "Piano Technique".