Taught by renowned pianist
Emanuel Ax
Almost all professional pianists working today can trace their lineage of mentors back to Beethoven. Unlike most pianists, Emanuel Ax is able to trace that lineage through Ferruccio Busoni, who taught Egon Petri, who taught Ax's Juilliard teacher Mieczysław Munz. But, we don't just learn from our teachers, but from the pianists we hear on recordings and witness in concert. Ax's musicianship is a cocktail of these two influences. In this series, Ax reflects on the pianists who inspired him and is met virtually by two students of his own – Louis Schwizgebel and Nicolas Namoradze – to whom he passes the torch.
Struggle and Interpretation: Ax on Brahms Concerti and the Serkins
Practicing musicians can identify in different ways with the concept of struggle. Most pianists, including Emanuel Ax, struggle in their practice sessions to gain interpretive clarity and facility in execution. In terms of character, struggle can also be very important to some music – as Ax explains in the context of Rudolf Serkin's temperament in Beethoven and Brahms. Continuing with examples from Brahms's two piano concerti, Ax describes his lesson with Arthur Rubinstein and how close it made him feel to 19th-century life. In that era, piano interpretation was more flexible – there were fewer dogmas – and Ax cites Peter Serkin's research on Brahms's own performance markings.
Videography: Christopher and Mary Smith; Sound: Dennis Schweitzer.
Mentors, from Conservatory to Concert Hall: Ax on Lupu, Richter, and Munz
Emanuel Ax’s conservatory training consisted almost entirely of solving the practical and choreographic problems in piano playing. His teacher, the great Polish pianist Mieczysław Munz, had a knack for finding effective fingerings in difficult passages, as in the Chopin Fourth Scherzo or First Concerto. So, if not from Munz, where did Ax learn to interpret great repertoire? Not from Juilliard, but from the greatest pianists Ax heard live on a weekly basis during his younger years. He describes two occasions in particular: one on his first date with his wife in 1969 when he saw Radu Lupu perform the Schubert B-flat Sonata, and the other a few years before, when he had a stage seat in Carnegie Hall to see Sviatoslav Richter perform Schubert, Brahms, and Chopin.
Videography: Christopher and Mary Smith; Sound: Dennis Schweitzer.
Teaching Beethoven's 'Emperor': Ax on his student Louis Schwizgebel
While Emanuel Ax's career as a performing artist occupies most of his time and attention, he has managed to balance his concertizing with teaching. In this video, we see Ax greeted by one of his old students – tonebase Artist Louis Schwizgebel – who asks him via recorded video a question about practicing Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto. Ax – delighted to see one of his most talented and accomplished students – proceeds to give insights on approaching the opening of the last movement, as well as the transition that precedes it. He describes how Busoni used to change his body language at that moment for dramatic effect, leading to a conversation on concentration and structural interpretation in piano interpretations – particularly those of Maurizio Pollini.
Videography: Christopher and Mary Smith; Sound: Dennis Schweitzer.
Detail and Structure: Ax on his student Nicolas Namoradze
When we interpret great repertoire, how much expressive attention should we give to details and how much should we try to communicate the larger structure? In this video, we surprise Emanuel Ax with a recorded question from one of his former students, tonebase Artist Nicolas Namoradze, who asks about balancing detail and structure in interpretation. After gushing about Namoradze's talents as a pianist and composer, Ax describes the challenges he's faced trying to reconcile precisely those two facets of music. Ax claims to err on the side of structural considerations, and is never sure if his expressive details are "right." In the end, it's a question of "how much" expressive weight to give in a particular moment, and Ax describes how he has helped the prodigy Harmony Zhu develop her tastes in precisely this area of interpretation.
Videography: Christopher and Mary Smith; Sound: Dennis Schweitzer.
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