Chapter 11

Virtuosity vs Musicality! I guess a problem every pianist struggling with. I personally find it pretty hard to find a good balance in between. No one would object the ultimate goal of performing music is to explore the expressiveness in music, but most of us can’t help ourselves leaning on either side. Ironically we need them both. We need expressiveness to keep the music interesting, yet we need good technique to express the music. Maybe this is inborn, rarely there’s a person strong at both sides. So far as we read, almost everyone encountered this problem. Beethoven was fame of his passion and energy in his piano playing but also was criticized his craftsmanship not good enough. Chopin might be an exception because people said he’s ‘perfect’. Thalberg was thought too mechanical. Even Liszt found himself couldn’t express music well enough at a point. And here now Schumann ruined his finger because he lost the balance in his practice.

I couldn’t imagine how could Schumann insisted his career as a musician after the injury. It takes so much courage. For this one single reason he’s already a very respectable musician. In this generation we just don’t have this patience and the obsession of one thing to persist like Schumann did. Frankly if one day I couldn’t play the piano anymore I would simply switch to other fields, probably one that could earn more or doesn’t have to lock myself up always.

Before reading this chapter, Clara was just ‘a famous female pianist’ in my understanding. This is so overly understated! She was good enough to being compared with Thalberg and Liszt and etc. She must be really good. Again, I couldn’t imagine how she went through her childhood under her cruel father’s torture... I think she deserve more than she’s having nowadays.