Never bore your listeners

Conductor and pianist Seymour Lipkin (born 1928) recalled piano lessons with his teacher, Bohemian-born pianist Rudolf Serkin:

He said so many memorable things to me that I continue to pass on to my students.  A few examples: “The worst crime you can commit as an artist is to bore your listeners”; for another, “People who come to hear you are entitled to hear all the rights notes, don’t you think?”; also,”You can’t play Mozart beautifully unless you can play Tchaikovsky well … and vice versa.” That last one made no sense to me at all at the time; now I understand precisely what he meant by it.

Cited in:  Lehmann, Stephen (2003) Rudolf Serkin: A Life.  New York: Oxford University Press, p. 209.


Posted

in

by


Featured Content

Mozart the philosopher
On February 19 1786 Mozart attended a masked ball disguised as an Indian philosopher. He distributed pamplets with riddles. One of the riddles was: If you are poor but clever, arm yourself with patience, and work hard. If you do not become rich, you will at least remain clever. – If you are an ass […]
Waiting for inspiration
The composer does not sit around wait wait for inspiration to walk up and introduce itself … Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel. — George Gershwin Isaac Goldberg. Tin Pan Alley. New […]
I do not choose my listeners
“I do not choose my listeners. What I mean is, I never write for my listeners. I think about my audience, but I am not writing for them. I have something to tell them, but the audience must also put a certain effort into it. But I never wrote for an audience and never will […]
Gymnopedies No. 1 (Satie)
Title: Gymnopedies No. 1 Composer: Eric Satie Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello quartet Product medium: PDF score and parts Sample:    
You Have Been Our Refuge – Psalm 89 (90)
TITLE: You Have Been Our Refuge (In Every Age, O Lord, You Have Been Our Refuge) TEXT: Psalm 89 (90):3-6, 12-14, 17 INSTRUMENTATION: SATB and piano PRODUCT MEDIUM: PDF score and part SAMPLE:
Brahms’ stingy side
Musicologist Richard Leonard describes a stingy side to Brahms’s personality: It is true that at times he was generous, giving away large sums to persons in need, and often imposing a strict secrecy; but about his own affairs he was as congenitally stingy as a peasant.  He bought only the cheapest clothes, wore the same […]
Schumann chasing a girl
Schumann once attended a masquerade during the carnival of 1830, in company with his friend Rosen, for the purpose of paying some attention to a pretty but otherwise insignificant girl.He knew that she would be present at the ball, and, as a pretext for approaching her, put a poem in his pocket.Fortune favored him: he […]
Practising at every opportunity
The conductor Stokowski was co-conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.  He was rehearsing his own orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.  The orchestra, however, was used to playing Ravel’s exuberant orchestration. Charles O’Connell recalled: “In the midst of the rehearsal, one of the second violinists busied himself practising the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, which […]
They who dream
“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” — Edgar Allan Poe
Lord, Heal My Soul – Psalm 40 (41)
TITLE: Lord, Heal My Soul TEXT: Psalm 40 (41): 2-5, 13-14. R. v.5 COMPOSER: Greg Smith INSTRUMENTATION: SATB and piano SAMPLE: