Scan 14
Musical Courier 1896-12-23: Vol 33 Iss 877, 1896
44 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 15. See the scan on archive.org.
1Sieveking.
3MARTINUS SIEVEKING stands before you a young man of gracious and dignified bearing, with a tall, close-knit, elastic physique, betokening enduring strength, and with a naturally clever face illumined by large human sympathy. There are no external signs of the virtuoso about the Dutch pianist, no atmosphere of student and sedentary recluse. Sieveking is first and before piano playing a vigorous, manly man, in love with manly sports and life out of doors, and fitted beyond most men for the perfect enjoyment of free and vigorous exercise, through a superlatively healthy organization, which he knows how to preserve.
5He will converse with you with absolute fluency and intelligence in any of six modern languages you may prefer. His English is as smooth, as well chosen and expressive as his native Dutch; his French is polished, and in German, Italian or Spanish he is equally at home. His musical ear, added to a superior native intelligence, has served him well in this mastery over language, which in Sieveking is a rarely remarkable gift.
7"Do I study much, practice, and how?" he answered. "Yes, I will tell you presently. But first, I would like to say that I do not call myself a piano virtuoso. That term to me means little. I have mastered technic as a medium, but what I forever strive for is to become master of the composer's inner meaning, so that I may interpret it faithfully to the world, let the result be virtuosity or not. To me every composition is a picture for which technic is the frame. I try to see that picture as the composer drew it. I can see and hear a storm when I play, see a fair landscape stretching before me, imagine myself in love, or facing some great personal sorrow; in short, I strive with all my imagination to enter into every phase of life, nature or art which a composer may have conceived. After this I seek for no effect but that of lovely tone.
9"I practice systematically, except on the days I play in public, anywhere from five to seven hours. I give an hour at least to finger exercises, and use several studies by William Mason which I consider invaluable. Octaves I think probably require more practice to keep up well than other features in technic. Trills are also troublesome, but then a man with a soft arm is generally in good condition and need not make specifications."
11Now what Sieveking means by a soft arm is just such an arm as he himself possesses, but which not one pianist in ten thousand can boast of in the same degree. You feel this arm in a vitalized condition, and the entire muscular tissue is soft as an air cushion. But like a flash of lightning, at the player's will, these muscles, through shoulder, arm and side, become like so many bands of steel. The entire muscular system with Sieveking is so marvelously developed and under such complete control—particularly those muscles governing the hand for piano playing through arm and shoulder—that he is enabled to compass feats, either of strength or delicacy, which few players can command in the same degree of contrast.
13The change is electric in rapidity. From a state of wholly relaxed pliability Sieveking can change in a quarter of a breath to a muscular tension in which the arm is like so much cast iron, while the fingers remain absolutely flexible. His muscular control is astounding, the variation from a tension of the most powerful force to a completely inert tissue being made by him with the velocity of a fan in regular motion. The command which this gives him over a keyboard is unusual, because between full tension and no tension whatever Sieveking can control absolutely every minute degree of tonal pressure. An idea prevails with some that great muscular development in the case of a pianist will only result in a great amount of force. It helps force most certainly, but it helps delicacy quite as much, for thoroughly trained muscles brought under perfect control will effect in piano playing every shade of color, every degree in dynamics which the performer's will can suggest. A set of muscles under the same immediate and absolute control of Sieveking's it would be a discovery to duplicate. The nervous system is made subservient to the muscular in so perfect a state of development as this, and reliability and repose are the results to be expected.
15"In the practice of repertory." Sieveking continued, "I use the metronome for studies—always. I begin practice at half tempo, playing at least four times each with right and left hand separately. By gradual degrees I raise the tempo to the proper pace, at which I play as long as I consider necessary. I always practice mezza forte, never piano, never forte, and I make no attempt at tonal shading whatever, simply a monotonous mezza forte repetition, whatever the spirit of the work. No matter if staccato, I practice everything legato, to preserve muscular control, and raise the fingers as high as possible. If you can play legato well the staccato will be all right. I am in love with the keys, and never leave them even in staccato playing; that is, I lift the fingers without the hand, you understand. I play staccato without my wrist, that is all. At no finished performance do I use more than 50 per cent. of my force, so that I can get tone without limit. I try not to exhaust the quality which sings.
17"Yes, the government under which I have my muscles enables me largely to conserve my strength. For instance, in chord playing, even when I strike chords in rapid succession, I find time between each to relax the muscles and thereby relieve the strain."
19To be a personal examiner at close range of exactly how Sieveking accomplishes this is a wonder-lesson in the elastic use of an absolutely flexible muscular organization.
21"I have," he continued, "while using the same finger pressure four different degrees of tone. There is the lightest, from only the finger; then finger combined with hand, then arm, then shoulder. In playing a chord I can also manage to bring a full tension on one finger, while the others are comparatively relaxed, should I wish to make one tone sing longer or stronger than the rest. Each finger with me is wholly independent.
23"Now," continued Sieveking, "people start sometimes when they hear that I never strike a note without pedal. I believe in constant contact between the keys and pedals, through the fingers, and even in the case of a sixteenth chord I will use pedal, relinquishing it in the same way as I relax the muscles, with what you are pleased to call 'touch-and-go rapidity.' Yes, my pedal work, where pedal is not meant to be sustained, does not violate the rule. I use pedal on the tone, but relax instantly, no matter how brief the note before the next is struck, so that matters are never blurred. I do not care to conceive the effect of any tone on the piano without pedal, that is, bien entendu," added Sieveking, "in my own case, having made the study and acquired the control over pedaling which I believe I have. Of course where pedal is sustained I do so just as any other pianist, but where no pedal is indicated I still employ it, only in the manner of perpetual pressure and relaxation, as I have described. Oh, yes, I know this is a new and strange departure in piano playing, but the enhancement of tone is very great. I consider the piano destined for the aid of pedal as I use it, if players would cultivate the pedal control as I have worked to govern it for so long.
25"Do my muscles ever stiffen and play me false, you ask. No, not unless the arms get cold from chill or draft, and this is dangerous for a pianist. Always keep the arms warm and soft. In case of cold, or fatigue from overwork, I apply massage with a horsehair glove—do it myself—until my arms are in a red glow. This makes them flexible at once and renews vigor.
27"On the day I appear in public I don't play a note otherwise. I am also careful what I eat, but particularly what I drink. Liquids of any kind, wines especially, are bad. They induce perspiration and weaken you. Pianists should at no time drink between meals, as the habit of perspiration can be acquired and is disastrous. No, my hands never perspire. The forehead will, despite every precaution. On the day I play I take a little cocoa and a few eggs about three hours before, then a substantial meal afterward. But I am invariably careful to keep the system dry, using only enough liquid to sufficiently moisten food at meals.
29"Have I a favorite composer? I think not, unless it would be the man who never wrote anything for the piano. I am not a pianist of any special repertory, any more than I am a piano virtuoso. I don't stand up and say I can play twenty-five sonatas and a dozen concertos. I study and acquire new works constantly, and if I have left the practice of some old work aside for a time and wish to include it in a program I take and practice it again after the manner of half tempo, legato touch, and each hand separately for a time, which I have described to you. No, I won't even say I play a half dozen concertos, and I will say I can strike as many wrong notes at times as any man who plays. But then, I have said it, I am not a virtuoso. My first idea is the faithful, the poetic and dramatic interpretation of a musician's meaning, and my primary technical ideal is to sing this forth in as pure and sweet and vibrant a tone as piano mechanism under complete finger and pedal control will permit."
31Saint-Saëns' new piano concerto, the fifth, lay on the piano. "I have not looked at it yet," said Sieveking, "but it will come next."
33It must not be supposed that because Martinus Sieveking gives some new nuts to crack on the theory of piano playing he is a man of other than serious modesty and even reserve concerning his art. What he says he says in answer to questioning, and his views are enunciated without any flavor of dogmatism. He speaks of things as he feels he has proved them to himself, and with an earnestness and simplicity which there can be no mistaking. The keynote to the character, musical and personal, of Sieveking, may readily be found in a firm, serious, unaffected truthfulness. He has no pose, artistic or personal, but carries the conviction of manly, earnest fidelity, and a wholesome absence of affectation in everything he undertakes.
35A fine, frank, virile manner, which also bears the stamp of good breeding, belongs to Sieveking, and he is eminently courteous and kind. His conversation covers a wide range, showing sound general culture, while his choice of English and the facility with which he expresses himself are a marvel from a foreigner. When it is remembered that he is equally felicitous in so many other tongues, Sieveking is made to stand a kind of linguistic hero.
37He can grasp with the simplest ease on the keyboard a chord embracing from C to G above its octave. His entire hand is flexible as a rubber ball, and can be bent into almost any position, but let Sieveking charge that hand with muscular force and it will take the power of a strong individual to move a finger.
39All this highly developed bodily tissue is under the control of a temperament plastic, refined, but strong. Sieveking can have no association with things morbid. Mentally, physically and artistically he is a refreshing specimen of duly regulated character and strength.
41A Friend of Wagner Dead.—The death is announced of Otto Wesendonck in his eightieth year. The deceased, who resided in Berlin from the sixties, was an intimate friend of Wagner's during his Zurich exile, and the young composer found for a long time a home in his house. Five of the Lieder written by Frau Wesendonck were set to music by Richard Wagner.
43Nibelungen Ring at Berlin.—Berlin, December 5.—Der Ring des Nibelungen will be produced at the Berlin Opera House next week. The performances will be given at the special request of the Emperor, and the works will be presented by the Bayreuth cast of artists. Despite the high prices there is a strong demand for seats.
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