Schumann's Device and GG's technique

[jv <bardolph@home.com>]

	Schumann wanted to become a great concert pianist, and in order to
develop his 4th finger - the weakest and most dependent one - he
invented some sort of device which he wore on his hand while practicing;
unfortunately, excessive use of the contraption permanently lamed his
hand; so he had to become a great composer instead.  Don't try THIS at
home either!!  

	Last lesson I told my piano teacher, a no-nonsense Russian, that I'd
missed a couple days' practice; he frowned slightly; I told him it was
because I'd hurt my weak fingers overdoing it one day, so I rested until
the pain was entirely gone, and he nodded approvingly.  

	Which brings a GG question to mind - I haven't seen a film or video of
him playing for years, and I forget what hand-position he used.  Were
his fingers straight and flat like Horowitz's?  Or high over the
keyboard and curved like the piano-teachers tell you they should be?  Or
something different again?  I recall he sat unusually low, so that his
forearms slanted up towards the keyboard....

	As for Horowitz, with such a great example, why do teachers insist that
straight fingers are bad?  What other unusual hand-positions and
techniques are used by noted pianists today?

	Has anyone read Gyorgy Sandor's book "On Piano Playing" - more
importantly, does anyone on this list actually follow all his
recommendations?  My piano teacher snickered when I described some of
Sandor's ideas to him - maybe it's a Russian-Hungarian thing :)