Hey, does anybody know if people like Mozart/bach/gershwin were good at the piano/harpsicord and how would they compare to pianists today?

i reckon Mozart was and OK player ()

Ooh, I reckon they all got to at least grade 7 or 8...

They would have more insight in the own works for sure, seeing as they did write the music!

You can judge Gershwin for yourself here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvSZTmS1zew


Pretty slick!

Beethoven wrote his piano sonatas and concerti specifically for himself to perform so I reckon we can assume he was a pretty good pianist! It was only because he was too deaf that he could not perform the premier of the Concerto No.5 and it fell to his pupil Czerny to do it. Beethoven was a stickler for performers observing his dynamics. It was these that (in his opinion, though it still stands today) changed the notes on the page to something more soulful and meaningful. I think todays pianists would compare favourably all the time they observed his dynamics. He also wanted performers to look behind the music to interpret what he was thinking/feeling when he wrote it.

I believe Mozart composed for his own playing too.

I heard Liszt was a bit of an alright

Liszt as the composer/performer was quoted as: "He composed with performer in mind, and performed with the composer in mind"

I was asked to play the piano part for Gershwin's compilation music Crazy for You. I turned it down because there was no way I could play it, even if I had a year (the time given to me was three days on that occasion)

They all played piano. All the greats.
After all, its all about chords and understanding.
These days they'd all improvise and record, cos most of their works were fairly spontaneous. And as for Bach, he was so mathematical, a real genius.
Mozart was a protegy; he played piano well from about 8, and i think they would all be concert pianists.
They had to be good, to survive.

Bach could improvise fugues at the keyboard! (If you don't know how hard that is try improvising a two part round)

Mozart was a phenomenon by the standards of any age - it is not his fault that piano technique has moved on in the last 200+ years

There are old films of Gershwin, so you can see for yourself how good he was ... ###### good!!

On piano playing - Rachmaninoff left us some fine recordings - I doubt that anyone since has played significantly better.

There is a reason why the great composers and performers of the past are still remembered today. Their abilities and achievements are quite awesome. Not only the Mozarts and Beethovens and Liszts but the so-called "minor" composers were mind-bogglingly huge talents

The more you learn about music the more amazing their achievements seem

Popular misconception - Berlioz, for example, was not a pianist.

I seem to recall that Ravel was an indifferent pianist, despite having written some of the most formidable material in the repertoire.

Edward

Yes I wonder if he could play his own 'Gaspard de la Nuit'

Shostakovich was a good pianist, I used to have an old recording of him playing some of his Op87 Preludes and Fugues. You have to be brilliant even to play the first few lines of the G#minor fugue (No 10 I think). Playing the single theme is bad enough then trying to get the second part in.

I have an album of Ravel's music with a potted biography in the intro with photos of him at the piano. It says that although his playing was "not up to professional standards" he could nevertheless play his own Gaspard de la Nuit.

So by the standards of most normal people he must have been an excellent pianist!

How about Chopin anyone?

I've heard that he couldnt really perform quite a few of his own pieces at a good level which I find hard to beleive.