# How Do They Do It?



## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

I happened across this live recording of the Beethoven #3 with Arthur Rubinstein and Bernard Haitink conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1973 when Rubinstein was 86!

It's an extraordinarily performance for a person of this age, well of any age for that matter. The playing distinct and bell-like in its clarity. The runs and trills are clear and accurate.

What strikes me more than anything is the fact that Rubinstein plays almost expressionless which is misleading when you hear the expression in the playing. This a man who was as familiar or, arguably, more familiar with this music as any pianist who has ever played it and his experience shows.

Also, what amazes me is how one can even play at this level at this age. Anyone over the age of 60 knows how vulnerable the joints become to various forms of arthritis or, in the case of the hands, at the very least, stiffness and diminishing dexterity. A number of concert pianists have disappeared from the scene due to RMD (repetitive motion disorder) which is one of the reasons works have been composed for the left hand. So I watch this performance in absolute admiration for the example and accomplishment.

Rubinstein is not the only great pianist to play well into his 80s, but their numbers are, over all, relatively few. How do they do it?


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

The spirit never ages and love is a great motivator to stay active and young at heart... They all speak of the love the music and the love of what they are doing, or one can sense that they feel that way.

Rubinstein interview:






Horowitz at 83:






Conductor Bernard Haitink at 82:


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Larkenfield said:


> Rubinstein interview:


At the beginning, Rubinstein describes Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMDj wherein the Macula, the heart of and center of the Retina degenerates and central vision deteriorates. Another challenge for an elderly pianist. I didn't know he had it.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Rubinstein was an amazing natural talent. Among other things, he could master (not just memorize) entire piano concertos such as the Grieg in a matter of days. When he was young, he only worked as hard as he had to. But then came electrical recording (he never made an acoustical recording) with high fidelity that revealed the slightest flaws. He took a sabbatical, worked day and night, and was able to bring his playing to a sky-high technical level, even though he was over 40 at that point. Again, amazing. His clarity and unerring control over phrasing are uncanny and make for superb records. Understandably, he never did reach the ultimate degree of lightening-fast fingerwork of someone like Hoffmann. No doubt that was never his goal. That may be why he never recorded the Chopin etudes, for example.

Rubinstein may be fading out of fashion these days, in the era of the fast-fingered virtuosos. But he was extraordinary. (A lot of my information about him comes from his own two-volume autobiography, My Early Years and My Many Years. Great reading.)


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I read (or heard) him say that he owed the fullness of his talent to being exposed to Horowitz. The story is that Rubenstein was a prodigy, arrived with a great splash, and then he said he coasted on his early momentum for a number of years, allowing his technique and application to stagnate. Then he heard the up-and-coming Horowitz and realized that he himself was allowing himself to decay as an artist; he then set to work to reconstruct his pianism and was reborn as the mature Rubenstein.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> I read (or heard) him say that he owed the fullness of his talent to being exposed to Horowitz. The story is that Rubenstein was a prodigy, arrived with a great splash, and then he said he coasted on his early momentum for a number of years, allowing his technique and application to stagnate. Then he heard the up-and-coming Horowitz and realized that he himself was allowing himself to decay as an artist; he then set to work to reconstruct his pianism and was reborn as the mature Rubenstein.


Rubinstein really did have a fascinating career. When it began, Queen Victoria still reigned and he would give private performances for aristocrats and luminaries of the day like Henry James. There was no phonograph or radio, and not the same obsession with technical perfection we have today. Horowitz was also a child prodigy but didn't become a true international star until the mid-1920s, when he had to leave Russia for good to escape the Soviet regime and basically start his career from scratch. Imagine how Rubinstein must have felt about the sensation the young Horowitz soon created. A lesser pianist would soon have faded away. Or perhaps continue and be known as a great interpreter but with a penchant for the occasional clinker, like Fischer or Cortot. Nope. He straddled the romantic and modern eras and triumphed in both by being both musically compelling and technically precise.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I have long been struck by the longevity of so many virtuoso instrumentalists, and attribute it certainly in great part to the infinite satisfaction that must flow from the music one loves, one's mastery of it, the sense of fulfillment that flows from immersion in it, and also basking in the deserved glow of public recognition and acclaim for one's part in bringing pleasure (and certainly surcease from pain and anxiety) to other people. Plus, in Rubenstein's case, he enjoyed a busy, full "personal" life.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

Rubinstein was always considered to be a Chopin specialist, but his favourite composer was Brahms. He recorded the 1st concerto a number of times.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> I have long been struck by the longevity of so many virtuoso instrumentalists, and attribute it certainly in great part to the infinite satisfaction that must flow from the music one loves, one's mastery of it, the sense of fulfillment that flows from immersion in it, and also basking in the deserved glow of public recognition and acclaim for one's part in bringing pleasure (and certainly surcease from pain and anxiety) to other people. Plus, in Rubenstein's case, he enjoyed a busy, full "personal" life.


He did like the ladies.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

In his mid-90s, the venerated pianist Menahem Pressler is still doing concerts and recordings, even for DG. But there you can hear his age, I think.

At times, there are some nice moments though


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

One of the most charming examples is Borge improvising on a famous Gypsy melody with Anton Kontra, at the age of 80. 
He could actually play the piano ...


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