Increasing standards of playing?

[Cristalle Watson <wcristalle@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Hi Glenn Gould fans! I've got an interesting question for all of you.

A couple nights ago I was talking to a friend of mine who's studying piano
at the local university. She made an interesting comment, along the lines of
"standards of playing piano have risen since the last
generation of pianists." As an example she gave Ravel's Gaspard,
saying that twenty years ago there were only a handful of pianists in
Canada who could play it and now "everyone" (well, of course not
literally everyone!) plays it. (She just learned it last year, for
example.)

Do you agree? Do you think she's right? And if so, why have standards
risen? Do you think (as I do) that it's mainly due to Glenn Gould's favorite
activity: the splicing and editing of recordings? If you listen to famous
recordings made before we had the capability to do this, then you'll find
that technical perfection was neither achieved nor expected (nor even
particularly sought after!) To pianists such as Fischer, Schnabel and so
forth, the main point seemed to be conveying the structure of the music
itself rather than technical brilliance. But because the public has gotten
used to hearing an artificial, edited technical perfection, they have begun
to demand this not only in recordings but in concerts as well, putting more
pressure on performers to acquire extreme technical polish.

Or do you think it's due to other factors? Is it because teachers have
gotten better at analyzing their students' playing and improving their
technique? Is it just that students work harder? Are too many piano students
attempting difficult repertoire before they're really ready for it, because
they want to win competitions, or their teachers are pushing them into it?
Or have more prodigies appeared in the population, for some inexplicable
reason?

And, finally, do you really count this as an "increased standard of
playing?" Just because more pianists can play repertoire that is
famous for being difficult, does it really mean they're better
pianists, or just more technically fluent? It seems to me there are
more important things in piano playing than technical brilliancy.

Any insightful thoughts?

Cristalle







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