Inspiring masterclasses of Boris Berman, Russian Pianist (Videos)

I usually pass over e-mailings from the Masterclass Media Foundation because none of the offerings to date had lit a fire, that is, until Boris Berman suddenly turned up on the roster.

First, the mandatory bio:

“Internationally regarded as one of the great keyboard teachers of our time, Boris Berman is well known to the audiences of nearly fifty countries. Since 1979 he has lived in the U.S. and has taught at Boston University, Brandeis University, Indiana University, and is currently head of the piano department at the Yale School of Music. Among other acclaimed CDs he has recorded the complete piano works of Sergei Prokofiev for the Chandos label.”

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I can compare the excitement about Berman to my euphoria following Rudolf Serkin’s drop dead performance of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata at Carnegie Hall, or Richter’s “Revolutionary” Etude that resonated from the stage into the last row of the great New York City music hall. I held my opera binocs and stared down at the pianist who otherwise looked like a peanut. It was as if I were in the Ebbets Field bleachers watching Duke Snider slam a homer with a bat that looked like a toy, and a ball which could have been the dot of an i.

The Master Class Foundation, with its advanced technology, had bridged the distance between performer/teacher and audience. Innovation! Putting an inspiring musical figure in your midst, over DVD, or even better via an Online preview was a headliner!– I’d crack a credit card to get the whole, uninterrupted class by UPS.

But just as a teaser, here’s the one snippet that had me compulsively clicking replay after replay. It’s the segment where Berman discussed the return of the “same” material in a Chopin work. How ironic, that last night I was pondering this very subject as it concerned the C# minor Waltz opening theme. I thought of the final statement as a memory, a nostalgic revisit– and yet it had to happen without any specific prompts, Berman had said wisely about the B minor Scherzo. Perched at the Steinway, his arms swayed to the music.

He wisely counseled the student not to contrive or plan what she was going to do. (“It would sound preconceived and not natural”) Instead, he told her to let it happen, as if divinely inspired at the moment of Truth or revelation. For that epiphany, I’d pay $$$ to the Foundation for more.

Chopin B minor Scherzo No. 1:

Take a listen to Boris Berman in this teaching setting as he imparts his musical philosophy and shares his pianistic artistry. Experiencing such moments of greatness, I found myself hungering for more of the artist’s demonstrations as they interspersed the Masterclass. But for now, I’d settle for the musical/emotional peaks brought home by Internet.

“Eroica” Variation, by Beethoven:

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The Masterclass of Dimitri Bashkirov

https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/a-piano-masterclass-in-a-universal-language/