SITES FOR PIANISTS

"Four things are necessary for the pianist who would make an artistic
success in public. They are: Variety of tone color; Individual and
artistic phrasing; True feeling; Personal magnetism. Colors mean so much
to me; some are so beautiful, the various shades of red, for instance;
then the golden yellows, rich, warm browns, and soft liquid blues. We
can make as wonderful combinations with them as ever the painters do.
To me dark red speaks of something tender, heart-searching, mysterious."
Here Mr. Hochman illustrated his words at the piano with an expressive
fragment full of deep feeling. "On the other hand, the shades of yellow
express gaiety and brightness"; here the illustrations were all life and
fire, in crisp, brilliant staccatos. Other colors were just as
effectively represented.

"What I have just indicated at the keyboard," continued the artist,
"gives a faint idea of what can be done with tone coloring, and why I
feel that pianists who neglect this side of their art, or do not see
this side of it, are missing just so much beauty. I could name one
pianist, a great name in the world of music--a man with an absolutely
flawless technic, yet whose playing to me, is dry and colorless; it
gives you no ideas, nothing you can carry away: it is like water--water.
Another, with great variety of tonal beauty, gives me many ideas--many
pictures of tone. His name is Gabrilowitsch; he is for me the greatest
pianist.

MAKING CLIMAXES PIANISSIMO

"In my own playing, when I color a phrase, I do not work up to a climax
and make that the loudest note, as most pianists do, but rather the
soft note of the phrase; this applies to lyric playing. I will show you
what I mean. Here is a fragment of two measures, containing a soulful
melody. I build up the crescendo, as you see, and at the highest point,
which you might expect to be the loudest, you find instead that it is
soft: the sharpness has been taken out of it, the thing you did not
expect has happened; and so there are constant surprises, tonal
surprises--tone colors not looked for.

"It is generally thought that a pianist should attend many recitals and
study the effects made by other pianists; I, on the contrary, feel I
gain more from hearing a great singer. The human voice is the greatest
of all instruments, and the player can have no more convincing lesson in
tone production and tone coloring, than he can obtain from listening to
a great emotional