Music Forum 2010

Every Monday, 4.10 pm
Venue: Adam Concert Room, NZSM Kelburn Campus, Victoria University, Gate 7, Kelburn Parade

Music Forum is a weekly seminar series hosted by the NZSM. The series is open to all members of the University community. Staff, graduate students and distinguished visiting speakers present recently-completed research, or discuss work in progress. Topics include Historical Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Musical Analysis. Open to the public and free admission.

22 March
Time-Travel for Pianists: How Today’s Players Can Learn from Instruments of the Past
Lecture-Recital by Dr. David Breitman, Associate Professor of Historical Performance
Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Ohio, USA

Today’s pianists are expected to play the music of three centuries on a single instrument: the Steinway model of the late 1800’s.  Other types of pianos, such as Mozart’s Walter or Chopin’s Pleyel, are increasingly being copied or restored, but they are played almost exclusively by specialists in “Historical Performance Practice.”  What can the old pianos teach us?  

Today’s pianists are expected to play the music of three centuries on a single instrument: the Steinway model of the late 1800’s.  Other types of pianos, such as Mozart’s Walter or Chopin’s Pleyel, are increasingly being copied or restored, but they are played almost exclusively by specialists in “Historical Performance Practice.”  What can the old pianos teach us?  Might some of these insights be useful for players of modern instruments? In his presentation David Breitman will speak about the role of the fortepiano in his own development and will play a variety of works on NZSM’s copy of a ca. 1795 Viennese instrument.  He will also discuss his experiments using the fortepiano as a teaching tool with “regular” piano students.

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