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

The progress of an artist
What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. – T. S. Elliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919)
Rachmaninoff practising slowly
Abram Chasins visited Rachmaninoff in Hollywood: Arriving at the designated hour of twelve, I heard an occasional piano sound as I approached the cottage. I stood outside the door, unable to believe my ears, Rachmaninoff was practising Chopin’s étude in thirds [G sharp minor, Op. 25, No. 6], but at such a snail’s pace that […]
Abstraction XII
Title: Abstraction XII Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Sample:  
The Blue Danube (Strauss)
Title: The Blue Danube (op. 314) Composer: Johann Strauss Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part (32 pages) Sample:
Nick Cave on the creative process
What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult […]
Elgar on his Violin Concerto
“It’s good! Awfully emotional! Too emotional, but I love it…” Edward Elgar on his own Violin Concerto Jeremy Pound, “First Violin”, BBC Music Magazine, October 2010, p. 36.
Lord, Make Us Turn To You – Psalm 79 (80)
Title: Lord, make us turn to you Text: Psalm 79 (80) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Memories (The Boy and the Heron)
Composer: Joe HisaishiArranger: Greg SmithTitle: “Memories”, from The Boy and the HeronInstrumentation: Piano Solo This item is available from Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus.
Transformation of art
“Art does not progress – it transforms itself.” – François-Joseph Fétes Siblin, Eric (2009) The Cello Suites.  Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, p. 191.
An author’s perogative to be critical
“A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.”— Marianne Moore, American poet Donoghue, Denis (1988) Reading America.  University of California Press, p. 244