Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau Quotes

“In ordinary staccato, with the natural rebound of the whole arm, as one mass, released, neither hand nor finger participates actively in the movement: With this fact falls the old-style wrist-technic…. The hand rebounds, trembles, shakes, because the whole arm is set vibrating. An isolated motion of the hand in the wrist-joint does not take place. … Staccato is not the result of wrist-action, but of the whole arm oscillating in its three principal joints. … When we speak of finger-staccato … we refer to the … free-descending fingers followed instantly by the weight of the rebounding hand.”
― Victoria A Von Arx, Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau: A Guide to His Philosophy and Techniques

“Virtuosity, wrote Liszt, is that which allows an artist “to reproduce everything that is expressed in art. It is indispensable and is never developed enough. It is particularly valued if it is seen represented through artists for whom it is not a means for display but a means to express feeling, who give it the entire abundance, the entire realm of speech.”
― Victoria A Von Arx, Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau: A Guide to His Philosophy and Techniques

“Arrau performed complete cycles of the Beethoven Sonatas, first in Mexico City in 1938 and later in Buenos Aires, London, and New York.”
― Victoria A Von Arx, Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau: A Guide to His Philosophy and Techniques