Rare film: A lesson with the greatest piano teacher of all

Rare film: A lesson with the greatest piano teacher of all

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norman lebrecht

April 15, 2015

Rare 1945 film from the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory shows a pupil (Margarita Fodorova?) taking lessons with Heinrich Neuhaus and Alexander Goldenweiser.

Neuhaus, a pupil of Scriabin, was Sviatoslav Richter’s teacher.

Goldenweiser’s students included Lazar Berman, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Dimitri Bashkirov.

What’s remarkable is how gentle they both seem – in contrast with the prevailing image of brutal Russian teaching methods.

richter neuhaus

The film above is an extract. You can watch the full half-hour documentary here.

Comments

  • Erwin Poelstra says:

    I think the name of the first girl is Margarita Fyodorova. Not sure about the second girl, who plays Chopin quite beautifully!

  • Erwin Poelstra says:

    By the way, as fas as I know Heinrich Neuhaus never studied with Scriabin. He received his first lessons from his father, and then studied the piano with Aleksander Michałowski, Karl Heinrich Barth and Leopold Godowsky.

  • Oliver says:

    I’m pretty certain Neuhaus didn’t study with Scriabin. Are you sure you don’t mean Szymanowski?

    • norman lebrecht says:

      Neuhaus was certainly of the Scriabin school He was professor for 40 years at the Moscow Conservatory, where Scriabin had tpreviously taught and made his Moscow debut by playing all ten Scriabin sonatas.

      • Erwin Poelstra says:

        Neuhaus started teaching at the Moscow Conservatory in 1922, and Scriabin died in 1915. Before that time he was mainly in Elisavetgrad, St. Petersburg, Kiev or abroad. I don’t think he ever had private lessons from Scriabin.

  • Shulamit Maneev says:

    The best Russian piano teachers
    were gentle & considerate.
    I could prove it as an alumni
    of the St. Petersburg conservatory.

  • esfir ross says:

    A. Scryabin teaching didn’t make impact on Russian piano school and Henrich Neihaus playing in 1922 all A.Scryabin piano sonatas was uneventful.

  • […] Rare film: A lesson with the greatest piano teacher of all Rare 1945 film from the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory shows a pupil (Margarita Fodorova?) taking lessons with Heinrich Neuhaus and Alexander Goldenweiser. Neuhaus, a pupil of Scriabin, was Sviatoslav Richter's teacher. Read more on Slipped Disc […]

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