Chopin Music

PianistSk8er · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:23 am Post subject: Female VS. Male pianists

It is true that there are substantially more men who have made it as big-time professional musicians, but why do you think this is? I've heard many recordings from women musicians as well and I think that they are starting to appear more and more. Especially these days (Argerich, Lisitsa, etc.)

What are your views on this? I'll post mine later. Wink

TheRach · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:54 am Post subject:

Well, it's that men tend to be more obsessive over one thing (science, for instance) and woman like to be more balanced out.
Women were also discouraged from doing these things in the past, I'm sure this plays into it.

Max · Registered User Joined: 18 Sep 2004 Posts: 475

Women have a distinctly different approach to interpretion which sometimes works, but sometimes doesnt. Men are usually more athletic pianists as well.

Goldberg · Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 11:58 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I've thought a significant deal on the topic but don't really have the energy to reply in length. Ultimately, I don't think it makes much difference in performance. Generalisations always abound, and there are frequent exceptions.....

However, I must say, I personally find it rather odd when women play Liszt. Don't lay down the "vile sexist" comments just yet, however; it's not so much that women CAN'T play Liszt (well, ok, some that I've seen most certainly can't, but then look at Argerich) but that it's weird when they play music written by such a....celebrity...who composed a lot of his music to seduce or otherwise affect females. To me, Liszt should be played with regards to its original spirit (and, btw, I'm not saying anything bad about Liszt's music, and not all of his music is that way) and it is more, eh, appropriate I think for men to play it. That being said, if I heard a recording of Liszt played by a woman, it wouldn't really bother me at all as long as it's quality playing. Just *watching* it is a little weird.

Would sunglasses be necessary here?

... Cool

lol_nl · Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 3:25 pm Post subject:

I think men and women should be equal and also at playing piano. But what is remarkable is that you see far more women who PLAY the piano but far more men who are PROFESSIONAL. Maybe it's just harder to become famous when you're a woman. Quite interesting Smile

And another problem could be that women sometimes have not enough strength (with an exception to people like Argerich, etc.). Playing concertos with many fortissimos is quite hard for women I noticed. There was a discussion about the fact that Brahms 1 is almost never performed by women.