I think that the old pianists were able to read the score in the profound sense of the word, much better than many piano players of today. In the sense that they were not satisfied with just seeing the P in piano, or where the C in the word crescendo was written. It’s basically the relativity - piano in relation to what? What comes before and what comes afterwards. Well, all this is not in the score. And it is all of that area, which is actually the area of music-making. This was a totally natural phenomenon for all of these pianists, regardless of where they came from and what school they came from. The Bible for them was the sound, not the printed page.
Daniel Barenboim in discussion of Claudio Arrau and the Golden Age of pianism.
Vanity… Vanity is the most terrible, the most broken of things for an interpreter. If you are sure that what you have to say is unique, then you are not out to please or not to please, or out to impress or not to impress. You have your message, and that’s it! If they like it, it’s alright; if they don’t, I don’t know if it is clear.
Claudio Arrau
This is our duty: to bring what we are convinced about to other people so that everybody can enjoy it. And, you know, people come to visit someone, and they bring a bottle of wine or flowers for the lady. I come to a concert and bring the piece which is touching my heart, and I want to share it with these people. I don’t want to impose it on them. I’m just convinced that since I love it so much, they might too.
Krystian Zimerman
To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.
Ansel Adams
Je n’ai pas à enseigner Emile (Naoumoff), j’épluche seulement l’orange…
I do not have to teach Emile, I only peel the orange…
Nadia Boulanger
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My wish is that when others receive my work, they feel it with as much excitement as I do in realizing it. Not to see it the same way, an impossibility, but to feel it as strongly.
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Performance is not mere recitation, but spontaneity itself realized via deliberate practice, where mastery becomes a choice governed by an artist’s disposition and the qualitative depth of their precedent work.
For the one who gazes lucidly upon life, the truth exhumed is that existence ceases not in its generosity of silent counsel, through which dust is distilled into heavenly song.
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Truly poignant art cannot be solely attributed to its objective qualities, but is deeply realized via self-association and subconscious underpinning. If a work, irrespective of its “objective” valence (if there is such a thing), may touch the soul of a person for whom it is most apropos, it fulfills its divine purpose. Art, bereft of apperception, might not exist at all. In the end, it is human experience that illuminates the timeless strokes of another’s pen.
Marquette, 2026.
R. Strauss/M. Reger: Morgen!, Op. 27, No. 4
J.W.M.
I want to emphasize the importance of impressing upon every pupil from the very beginning just how precious is the stuff with which he will be dealing all his life if he really devotes himself to the service of art. I never fail to feel that I am in the presence of a miracle as I explain to my pupils the works of genius of the great musicians, and we strive together to the best of our abilities to fathom their depth, probe their mysteries, understand their structure and raise ourselves to their lofty heights. I know that it is this awareness of the miracle and the joy it brings - the joy of sensing it and knowing it for what it is - which gives a meaning to my life, which forces me as a teacher to work much harder than “staff regulations” require and to give of myself without stinting.
Heinrich Neuhaus
Es waltet in jeder Zeit ein geheimes Bündnis verwandter Geister. Schließt, die Ihr zusammengehört, den Kreis fester, daß die Wahrheit der Kunst immer klarer leuchte, überall Freude und Segen verbreitend.
Every age has a secret society of congenial spirits - draw the circle tighter, you who belong to one another, that the truth of art may shine ever more clearly, spreading joy and blessings everywhere.
Robert Schumann, “Neue Bahnen," Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (NZfM), 1853.
I cannot think, at this moment, of any one who has done this better than a Silesian country gentle-man, who lately wrote to a music dealer as follows:
’Dear sir, — My cabinet for music will soon be arranged. You should see how handsome it is. Alabaster pillars, glasses with silk curtains, busts of composers; in short, spendid. But its most precious ornament is still wanting, so pray send me the complete works of Beethoven, as I like that composer much.’
I had more to say; but contempt has put it all out of my head.
Robert Schumann, “Shrovetide Speech by Florestan," NZfM, 1835.
Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of action. Our most emotionally active life is lived in our dreams, and our cells renew themselves most industriously in sleep. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer.
In stillness every human being is great; he is free from the experience of hostility; he is a poet, and most like an angel.
Leonard Bernstein, 1976.