Об исполнительском искусстве

Когда у Вашего ученика по фортепианной игре прилично поставлены пальцы, когда он не сбивается с такта и правильно берет ноты, обратите все Ваше внимание на стиль игры, не останавливайте его на мелких ошибках, укажите ему на них только после того, как он сыграет всю пьесу. Такой метод создает музыканта, что в конце концов и является основной целью музыкального искусства... В пассажах (виртуозного характера) заставляйте его играть всеми пальцами по очереди... Разумеется, когда играешь не всеми пальцами, игра получается более отделанная или, как говорят, «нанизанная, точно жемчуг», но ведь иногда больше нравятся и другие драгоценности.

(Черни)

Из книги: Beethoven, the Man and the Artist, As Revealed in His Own Words by Ludwig van Beethoven:1

62. "It has always been known that the greatest pianoforte players were also the greatest composers; but how did they play? Not like the pianists of today who prance up and down the key-board with passages in which they have exercised themselves,—putsch, putsch, putsch;—what does that mean? Nothing. When the true pianoforte virtuosi played it was always something homogeneous, an entity; it could be transcribed and then it appeared as a well thought-out work. That is pianoforte playing; the other is nothing!"2

63. "Candidly I am not a friend of Allegri di bravura and such, since they do nothing but promote mechanism."3

64. "The great pianists have nothing but technique and affectation."4

65. "As a rule, in the case of these gentlemen, all reason and feeling are generally lost in the nimbleness of their fingers."5

66. "Habit may depreciate the most brilliant talents."6

67. "You will have to play a long time yet before you realize that you can not play at all."7

68. "One must be something if one wishes to put on appearances."8

69. "These pianoforte players have their coteries whom they often join; there they are praised continually,—and there's an end of art!"9

70. "We Germans have too few dramatically trained singers for the part of Leonore. They are too cold and unfeeling; the Italians sing and act with body and soul."10

71. "If he is a master of his instrument I rank an organist amongst the first of virtuosi. I too, played the organ a great deal when I was young, but my nerves would not stand the power of the gigantic instrument."11

72. "I never wrote noisy music. For my instrumental works I need an orchestra of about sixty good musicians. I am convinced that only such a number can bring out the quickly changing graduations in performance."12

73. "A Requiem ought to be quiet music,—it needs no trump of doom; memories of the dead require no hubbub."13

74. "No metronome at all! He who has sound feeling needs none, and he who has not will get no help from the metronome;—he'll run away with the orchestra anyway."14

75. "In reading rapidly a multitude of misprints may pass unnoticed because you are familiar with the language."15

76. "The poet writes his monologue or dialogue in a certain, continuous rhythm, but the elocutionist in order to insure an understanding of the sense of the lines, must make pauses and interruptions at places where the poet was not permitted to indicate it by punctuation. The same manner of declamation can be applied to music, and admits of modification only according to the number of performers."16

77. "With respect to his playing with you, when he has acquired the proper mode of fingering and plays in time and plays the notes with tolerable correctness, only then direct his attention to the matter of interpretation; and when he has gotten this far do not stop him for little mistakes, but point them out at the end of the piece. Although I have myself given very little instruction I have always followed this method which quickly makes musicians, and that, after all, is one of the first objects of art."17

78. "Always place the hands at the key-board so that the fingers can not be raised higher than is necessary; only in this way is it possible to produce a singing tone."18

[PG Editor's Note: #79 was skipped in the 1905 edition—error?]

• 1. Компиляция высказываний Бетховена составлена Фридрихом Керстом (Friedrich Kerst), английский перевод осуществлен Генри Эдвардом Кребилем (Henry Edward Krehbiel) и опубликован в 1905 г. под названием “Beethoven: the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his own Words” (New York: B.W. Huebsch.).
• 2. In conversation with Tomaschek, October, 1814.
• 3. Hetzendorf, July 16, 1823, to Ries in London.
• 4. Fall of 1817, to Marie Pachler-Koschak, a pianist whom Beethoven regarded very highly. "You will play the sonatas in F major and C minor, for me, will you not?"
• 5. Reported by Schindler as a remark of Beethoven's concerning pianoforte virtuosi.
• 6. In 1812 to his pupil, Archduke Rudolph, whom he warns against too zealous a devotion to music.
• 7. July, 1808. Reported by Rust as having been said to a young man who played for Beethoven.
• 8. August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.
• 9. Conversation with Tomaschek, October, 1814.
• 10. 1824, in Baden, to Freudenberg, an organist from Breslau.
• 11. To Freudenberg, in Baden.
• 12. Reported by Schindler.
• 13. Reported by Holz to Fanny von Ponsing, in Baden, summer of 1858. According to the same authority Beethoven valued Cherubini's "Requiem" more highly than any other.
• 14. Reported by Schindler. It had been found that Beethoven himself had sent different metronomic indications to the publisher and the Philharmonic Society of London.
• 15. To Wegeler, who had expressed wonder at Beethoven's rapid primavista playing, when it was impossible to see each individual note.
• 16. Reported by Schindler, Beethoven's faithful factotum.
• 17. To Czerny, who was teaching music to Beethoven's nephew Karl.
• 18. Reported by Schindler as Beethoven's view on pianoforte instruction. He hated a staccato style of playing and dubbed it "finger dancing" and "throwing the hands in the air."