#classcal

Yay! There are so many things in only this one small episode^^ Today I like to speak about the “three Piano's”-Story. Next time I last but not least like to talk about Liszt and Thalberg. Then we have everything from this Episode. The story’s are so much fun! I hope you like it, too~

We are lucky that Liszt stayed at the same hotel as the pianist Friedrich Wieck and his 18-year-old daughter Clara - She later became Schumann's wife. Because the girl's diary shows what tremendous stir provoked Liszt's visit to Vienna. "We heard Liszt," she noted after a private concert in the workshop of a piano maker. "He is incomparable with any player - he stands alone, he excites fears and wonders, he is a very gracious artist, his appearance on the piano is indescribable - he is original." In Carl Maria von Weber's concert piece Liszt reached so hard into the keys so that three strings tore. Franz was unimpressed, said Miss Clara admiringly - "he must be used to that". It happened again and again that pianos gave up under Liszt's fingers. This was mainly due to the weak construction of many instruments of that time, but of course it made a big impression when he once again played a piano in the ground. That was part of his myth. At the first official concert on April 18, three grand pianos were on stage - "all three smashed, but all ingenious - the applause tremendous - the artist unabashed and amiable - everything new, unheard of - only Liszt."

In the biography from Chopin there was a Quote that I like very much, because I can picture Liszt very well:

"The inspiration comes in, the gaze of the god Liszt opens, his hair trembles, his fingers bend and hammer in a rush on the keys. He plays with his hands, with his elbows, his chin, his nose. Everything that can pounding on it ... 'Great,' shouts the audience. 'The repair will cost me twenty francs!' moans the goddess of the house Marie d'Agoult."

Some interesting information about Paganini? Here we go:

There were years when the Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini scared his audience. The performances of the so-called devil's violinist were as famous as they were notorious. When Paganini, born in Genoa in 1782, entered the podium dressed in black, not a few believed he saw the devil. The syphilis had attacked his larynx and destroyed his jaw, his teeth had fallen out, his eyes were deep in his skull. Drawn by illness, he could only move slowly.

When he returned to the Seine in spring of 1832, Franz Liszt was also in the audience. What Franz heard on that April 20 became a central experience of his life. It was Paganini's ecstatically increased virtuosity that overwhelmed him. He saw a musician who overcame all known technical hurdles, who gave his instrument hitherto unprecedented possibilities of expression, indeed, who seemed to reinvent the violin playing to a certain extent. Liszt suddenly realized that despite his brilliant technique, he had always moved within the limits of the Czerny school. He wanted to exceed this now. The virtuosity was not the goal, it was the way to open the piano a cosmos of completely new sensations. Franz immediately set to work: "For fourteen days, my mind and my fingers work like damned," he informed a friend. "In addition, I practice four to five hours of thirds, sixths, octaves, tremolos, repetitions, cadences, etc. .. Ah, if I'm not crazy, you'll find an artist in me! Yes, an artist, to your taste, like he must be today!"

Following the observations of Auguste Boissier, whose daughter Valérie took lessons from Liszt in 1832, we know the details of his studies. Liszt proceeded from the complete emancipation of the fingers, the pianist had an ensemble of ten equal fingers. Anatomical weaknesses have to be removed in a way: "The little one, the fourth and the third are the worst, they have to be given special attention, but the others have to be practiced as well, so he claims that every finger is practiced daily for a quarter of an hour by lifting it very high and then setting it down with the bale. Another practice is to perform the trills while the non-trilling fingers remain." The fingers must be extremely flexible and supple. He told Valérie "to do the various exercises for at least three hours a day, practice the various scales in octaves, thirds, as well as the arpeggios of each form, the trills, chords, in short everything that belongs to this study." This was usually very boring, Liszt had to admit, so Mademoiselle Boissier may open a book during the exercises. "For hours, he drags it on and reads to talk, sinking into his reading while practicing his fingers at the same time."

A little excursion about the piano:

Sébastien Érard, born in 1752, and his two years older brother Jean-Baptiste, ran the piano factory Érard Frères near the Seine and were considered brilliant piano designers. Among its numerous developments, the invention of the so-called double-trigger piano mechanics stands out especially. This construction made it possible for the hammers to fall back into their original position immediately after touching the piano string. Thanks to Érards creation, the satisfying performance of extremely fast sound sequences became possible, which inspired Liszt significantly.

I like this story very much and hope to be able to tell this in a way it’s understandable. The biography I use for this is from 1928 and not easy to understand - but very funny! The second biography is very short, too theoretically and this story is missing. Unfortunately^^

Schubert never wanted to be a teacher. He always had the feeling that making music was his only goal in life. He left the “konvikt” (a monastery were the children had classes) after 5 years (actually he needed to attend 6 years). But Schubert wanted to leave this “prison”. His father was not excited.

But what now? He was the 13. from 16. children in the house (only five got older than one year and four fully grew up). He had nothing to expect from home, at best ideational support. So modest this little boy was, he did not want to accept the social circumstances, because he was born to make music. “The state needs to preserve me. I only was born in these world to compose” (said Schubert to his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner)

The "konvikt" was shelter and offered food ... his family was not able to give him money for nothing. Now the millitary knocked on his door. A decade and a half Period of service laying bevore him and only one way to escape. It was his only way to fend off the millitary and get money, he needed to became a Teacher! He did everythings to not be a teacher, but his only way to life a millitary free life was to be a teacher in the end.

Now he would be what his father, his uncle and two brothers were. He was able to compos alongside his work, like is older brother Ferdinand. Franz Schubert, no human for office and court, no one for patience and everyday life, attended 1813 the preparatory course to become a teacher.

Like most of the biographys say that Schubert was a bad and irascible teacher, because of the words from his sister Therese. She reported from fisticuffs and Schubert himself said: “whenever I rhyme, this little pack anger me so much, that I regularly lose my thoughts. Of course I hit them proficiently.” At this time the teachers were allowed to use a stick to punish naughty kids. It’s not clear if he was fair to the children. Maybe the kids were like every children ... I think everyone knows what I mean^^ Kreißle another friend also said that Schubert was an dutiful and zealously man, despite his opposement to be a teacher.