Playing The Piano In Horowitz Style

I've recently taken up Liszt's technical studies again to check a couple of things about technique. I've also made an attempt to analyze the technique of several great pianists. Today I'd like to share what I think I found out about how Vladimir Horowitz did what he did. You've probablly heard about the Roy Holmes technique: scratching, flicking the keys towards the palm, basically in a detached fashion. Well, I'm convinced Horowitz did the reverse to get the brilliance with which he played finger passages. He scratched the surface of the keys away from the hand with the knuckle pull + extension movement Andrew describes. He did not go down into the keys, however, to get legato, but deliberately made it a detached touch, like a snap. When you do this slowly a couple of times and then let go, you get the typical Horowitz brilliance in your fingerwork. At the same time, there are no mechanical conflicts with the instrument. Try this on a passage you know well. Do it a couple of times slowly and then let go to play the music without the intention of interfering in the movements. Do you recognize that familiar brilliance? Horowitz' octaves-and-chords technique was also non-traditional, but still very effective. Put your hand on an octave and prepare your fingers for action. Now lift your hand with an abrupt movement in the wrist, as if you've just touched a hot plate. At the same time, the ready fingers create the tone. The arm does not go up. Put your hand on the next octave and repeat. Remember: the movement starts from the key surface. Think up, not down. Make it staccatissimo. When you've done this a couple of times (preferably on a passage you know already), let go, play with a musical intention and listen to the sheer brilliance of that octave passage. The rest of what Horowitz did was a game of strict legato with finger/arm pressure (for melodies), portamento with his fingers for the surrounding accompaniment (to make the legato melodies come out better) and finger staccato. I'm quite sure he learned this alternative technique from his "Uncle-who-play-loud" Felix Blumenfeld. Any ideas on how I might be gravely mistaken in my analysis? Paul

Blumenfeld was crippled-right? and when he tried to demonstrate to his pupil he used an akward position which produced a sound young Gorowitz liked? Probably what you described is the old Horowitz-as for the "scale"-passages. I think he changed his technique quite frequently.According to Wanda he sat higher and far away from the piano in his youth.I have the impression he used more scratching in younger days.There are som nice clips with Byron Janis on youtube and I think and what H transmitted to Janis is probably the way he played at that time-kind of scracthing/pressing.and you have the old famous interview where Horowitz himself describes his portato-technique. Even the old Horowitz does at times wathever like momentarily an extremely high arch or his old low-wrist number in Moszkowsky. The octave-technique probably stayed the same all his life.Not so easy to do for an old man. Otherwise I think you're right and if you ask me what he did the last years was sublime. I've tried to play as you describe (Alan wrote about Kemal using these movements frequently) and I love it but I don't feel so comfortable with it. The instrument was custommade (downpressure like 30gr fast uppressure etc, tuning a bit lower than standard for solorecitals) but I haven't heard one pianist produce anything near Horowitz sound on that instrument-yet.

Blumenfeld had a stroke in 1908 that paralyzed his right hand. At conservatory level, it is not custom to show movements to students (they are supposed to do their dirty linen at home), but I think Blumenfeld still showed Horowitz some of his personal tricks with his left hand, as Alan would do with a student during a session. P.S.: By the way, Horowitz never got his official Conservatory diploma because he didn't have proof that he had finished secondary education (gymnasium). Actually, you can also see what I describe in his middle period at Carnegie Hall, where he was probably at his best. Paul

You've probablly heard about the Roy Holmes technique: scratching, flicking the keys towards the palm, basically in a detached fashion. Well, I'm convinced Horowitz did the reverse to get the brilliance with which he played finger passages. He scratched the surface of the keys away from the hand with the knuckle pull + extension movement Andrew describes. He did not go down into the keys, however, to get legato, but deliberately made it a detached touch, like a snap. When you do this slowly a couple of times and then let go, you get the typical Horowitz brilliance in your fingerwork. Yeah, I've been doing a lot of experiments geared around this kind of thing. I'm finding the time taken for an individual key depression is HUGELY reduced if you get it spot on. I'm convinced that this is the key to the phenomenon I described at the start of this part- although I've only just realised how quite how far I had been from it with my 5th fingers, at the time I actually wrote that post. The thing I find is that the sweet spot comes from aiming slightly forwards- in a way where the finger moves the key without either stiffening one bit for stability or sliding either backwards or forwards. That's the slightly weird thing- you aim a little forwards (if you use the imaginary line through the knuckle and fingertip) but you feel the key as going straight down. I'm using the thing I mentioned in the other post about feeling the preparatory interaction between very slight weight and finger extension prior to even moving the key. It's like you're already pushing the knuckle up, before the key moves. The finger firms itself not against nothing, but specifically against the key's resistance. Also, if you just move the key a few mm from this position repeatedly, you get a sense of how well you're aiming. From there, when you move the key, the precision and clarity is just immense. Also, it's a good exercise to play a note two or three times using nothing but that finger action. If it's spot on, the key returns in the finger in the exact same path it moved the key. You don't have to do anything to return to your starter position but release. If you were sliding a little forwards or backwards, you'd have to start from a new position. By the way, I'm doing this almost entirely from a Rubinstein type position-but I think it's possible even from a very flat finger. I'm actually suspecting that even flat-fingered action have a trace of the extension- but nowhere near as much as those that start from curved fingers. I think it's a lot harder to get the primed position with flatter fingers- although I suspect that there's a way of going on to transfer the same kind of quality.