Life Lessons From Lang Lang—Part Four
From left to right: Lang Lang’s Eight Golden Rules for Studying the Piano; soprano Marilyn Mulvey takes pianist Victor Borge completely by surprise; violinist Jack Benny and Liberace perform a somewhat “spontaneous” approach to “Love in Bloom”; collaborative pianist George Harliono works to keep pace with soprano Hera Hyesang Park.
RULE NO. 4: Don’t Just Practice Alone
I relate particularly well to Rule Number 4, as this year I have already spent a great deal of time learning to work with singers on repertoire. If you recall some of my blog posts on the subject (please see Blog Posts from July 3, July 4, and July 7), I talk about how I learned to work with singers the way one would with another instrument, and how valuable the experience proved for me.
Perhaps the most important reward of working with singers has been the awareness of how much the process has improved my overall musicality. A collaborative pianist does not just have to play the right notes at the right time, but also convey the right mood of the music. Collaborative artists must be fully aware of what the other singers and/or instrumentalists need in order to communicate the message of the work, while also being so well prepared that they adapt to changes that have not even been rehearsed.
One of the funniest examples of this, and a way of demonstrating what can go wrong, is Victor Borge playing “Caro nome” from Verdi’s Rigoletto for soprano Marilyn Mulvey. Borge is simply not expecting the first note sung by Mulvey.
Another slightly more serious but still funny performance with the comedian Jack Benny and pianist Liberace shows what can go wrong if the soloist and collaborative artist are not fully working with one another. There is not a problem with ensemble here, but clearly the two artists have different ideas about the mood of the work. The actual music begins around 2:40.
Learning to play with other instruments and singers is a great teacher of many things, among them discipline, awareness and flexibility. Nowhere is this more brilliantly demonstrated than in this last video with Hera Hyesang Park and George Harliono, where he has to deal with her moving around the stage, and even sitting on the piano bench with him! It seems this collaborative pianist is prepared for anything, and it’s why being a collaborative artist always mean so much more than getting the notes right.
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