Ivo Pogorelich - Is There Tension In This Video ?

I'm watching Ivo play this short Scarlatti sonata and there are several good close-ups of his hands starting at about :30. It seems so much to me like his hands are tensing up. But I don't have the trained eye that Alan and some of the rest of you do. But he obviously plays it marvelously. What am I not seeing ?

I see a lot of tension in his hands as well, but I think it's a healthy and intelligently-controlled tension designed to expand his tonal palette, rather than an unwitting, parasitic tension that works against his will. Lifting the fingers as high as he does may seem like an unnatural motion, but it does not have to be a painful or dysfunctional one. I compare the lifting action to cocking a rubber band of sorts--a preparation for an attack that is sharp, fast, and precise, which is exactly what this piece calls for. Pogorelich is also not the only artist known for cocking his fingers. It was a common practice before the Romantic period, and there are examples of more recent keyboardists, like Wanda Landowska, who employ a similarly ultra-curled finger action to astonishing effect.

Makes sense. Obviously some tension is necessary to execute a piece. It would appear that the tension he's using doesn't accumulate and he always releases it. I may look at some others vids to see if he uses this technique accross the board. Thanks !

The fact that he releases tension upon hitting the bottom of the key is a good observation... While it takes a very strong and precise touch to get the sound Pogorelich draws out of the piano, it takes next to no effort to continue holding the key down with a secure hand structure. You'll notice that powerful playing initially requires extreme amounts of tension, but this tension is released immediately.

This is a very interesting video because it clarifies something I've noticed about Pogorelich for a long time: his pianissimos are exquisite, but his louder sounds tend to be black & white rather than colorful. His playing here shows why: You are right that he cocks his fingers back the better to have them fly, in an alive, active way into the key. But then he doesn't actually use all that possibility for articulation of which he so assiduously avails himself. In his soft playing he does clearly move the finger to move the key. But when it gets louder, he introduces a sort of arm weight element that clamps the moving finger to the key bottom, preventing it from finishing its stroke. This gives him a bold, chiseled sound, but it also limits his possibilities for coloration. I have nothing against this pulling back of the fingers; as you clearly noted, he doesn't hold on to the tension any longer than he needs to. And listen to what Wanda Landowska does with that same kind of thing; it looks almost like the dreaded "dual muscular pull!!!" Soon I am going to add some pictures I've found of her hands that show this same raised, tightly curled finger, but her musicality and color in every dynamic show that it's not causing her any problems. She does it on purpose, and she obviously knows what she's doing.... To listen, go to and check out Wanda Landowska Playing Mozart Piano Sonatas... AFF

Alan - Maybe you touched on this in your DVD but I just ordered it last week and its still in transit. Can you expand on the quote above ? The visual I'm getting from that is Pogorelich's arm weight is forcing his fingers to the bottom of the key bed so he's obviously striking the key. But when you say its preventing him from "finishing the stroke" are you referring to his release or....? Dave

No, I mean that the actual stroke of moving the key is inhibited, not the release. The best and most extreme example from my film is the "out the back door" technique from chapter 8, but this kind of freedom of movement of the finger should be felt more often than not, to some extent at least. Of course, a finger stroke has to stop eventually at the bottom of the key, but there shouldn't be the feeling that it was blocked prematurely. It should come to completion. And sometimes it is convenient to jam the finger on purpose, as in my Prokofiev Toccata example from chapter 5 (I think), but it should be done for a good reason. Here I think he limits himself. And you hear it in the musical result - he is not playing with the phrase shapes, he's not making them plastic and expressive but just playing it straight - it's a little bit mechanical. By the way, later on he increased this arm weight problem dramatically - I saw a video of him playing Rachmaninoff Sonata #2 in Washington DC where it was taken to such an extreme that it became a parody.

I could not disagree more comparing "ivo's lifted fingers" with "wanda's lifted fingers". Ivo feels natural. His hand is a unit and balanced wether in relaxed or tensed state. Wanda's fingers and hands feel terrible when looking at her. This is only my opinion of course.

Well, as you say, we are each entitled to our own opinion. I certainly understand you see it that way. But remember, I have 20 years' experience with Feldenkrais, and Kemal, and 30 plus years with Phil Cohen... Appearances can be deceiving! Like the people who think Horowitz was stiff because his arm didn't flop around a lot... EXTERNALLY, Ivo's looks natural - I still see it as it internally being an "imposed naturalness." Respectfully submitted, AFF

With a hand like IP's playing the piano can't be mainstream. Maybe for him this is the only way to play passages like in Scarlatti, using the first joints very effectively and trying to get these hands in position all the time. Which doesn't explain his undifferentiated ff. He if anyone should be able to give real speed to a key very easily but instead he uses this armweight thing that I see clearly now when Alan mentioned it (eg in his Chop#3 Sonata) kind of kills the sound. His brother seems to do the opposite tremendous fff and less differentiated pp, has anyone heard him live? Must be quite an experience...