Everyone played the Goldbergs from memory!!  Everyone played everything from memory with very few exceptions. Schnabel played all of Beethoven from memory.  Rubenstein and Horowitz played the history of piano music from memory  As performers, if we ARE performers and not academics (we CAN be both…Moroney as a fine example), we are similar to actors.  We need to internalize our music as actors internalize the text of a play.  Nothing of it must remain on a page for us to gather up as we communicate it out.  Now it maybe true that there are a few people who play better when the score is on the desk.  I think Leonhardt was one of those exceptions.  I remember when my very respected teacher Kenneth Gilbert would play a work on stage. A few times when he had the music in front of him but for one reason or other (page turns, etc) would have to do a repeat from memory.  It was ALWAYS better from memory.  But mostly, not memorizing is giving up on an important aspect of advocating the art work.  I believe it began as a reverse snobbism.  OH, the pianists who play Ravel memorize so WE don’t have to—we must not!  WE are different.  Well  I don’t buy it.  And if anyone ever wants to say that my playing reminds them of Cortot (except for all the wrong notes) Ill thank them and ask if I can quote that!

The theater is a place of memory.  The concert stage is part of the world of theater.  They see you before they hear you… and reading a book is less compelling than creating a sound world, magically from the ether.

As to Kayserling, he certainly didn't commission the Goldbergs, however he is a fascinating man and merits the search to find out his other influences and life story.

Best  

ANDREW


> On Feb 20, 2016, at 11:33 AM, Frank House <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Whatever modern scholars may say, I think the tale about the count is a fine story, and has poetic truth at least.
> 
> I am sure I read that Rosalyn Tureck gave a public performance of the variations (on piano) when she was 13 years old, the account struck me because I had the strong impression that it was from memory.
> 
> She had a normal modern education, with presumably less time spent on music than would have been the case in Goldberg's day, and he was a pupil of Bach's, what better teacher?
> 
> Regards,
>   Frank.
> 
> On 20/02/16 12:50, Stuart Frankel wrote:
> 
> 
>> I think that the story of Count Kayserling's commission is now generally
>> thought spurious. There's no evidence of it from Bach's time, there's no
>> dedication on the publication, and Goldberg would have been 14 years old
>> when they were published.
>> 
>> best,
>>  Stuart
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
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