Muti's masterclass for Conservatory students

The link you posted is the mobile version; this is the one to use for those reading from desktop http://video.repubblica.it/edizione/milano/milano-la-lezione-show-di-muti-agli-studenti-del-conservatorio/217353/216549?ref=search

Talentuoso wrote:

... listen to what he says about counterpoint!

«Counterpoint. Counterpoint. Counterpoint. And knowing how to read the seven-line staff easily»

Very much in agreement.

But what would he have said? (sensational)

LucaCavaliere wrote:

But what would he have said? (sensational)

... mah?

I find that Muti's words, in my opinion, reach the "essence." Sometimes we ask ourselves what we must do and forget the fundamental things. Of course, he doesn't say new things; in fact, he even jokes a bit ironically about "beating four" [keeping time] etc. But I find that great Masters have the duty to refer everything back to a few basic concepts: "few rules... but sound ones." Even when he speaks of verses with an open mouth, he wants to call for composure and not overexerting movement. "doing less to do more." One day a friend who was not accustomed to piano playing, let alone listening to Music, wanted to see me play. He was more interested in seeing what I was doing than in the listening. When I finished playing, he said to me: "it seems like you aren't doing anything." And it was a great compliment to me, perhaps undeserved. He had caught my conscious intention of being within the Music without worrying about anything else, except how to express it. I thanked him very much... but he could not understand. Great Masters like Muti, Pollini, etc., having reached the pinnacle, after having done so much and experimented so much, lead us back and invite us to reach the essential and "skip" all the superstructures that "scaffold" our apparent knowledge. Then it seems to us that they say nothing... or rather that they say trivialities!!!! The ski instructor would shout at the "Roman" beginner: "Close those skis!!! Close those skis!!!!!" and he replied indignantly: "...And don't get pissed [off]... thanks to your d*** you know how to ski." I still laugh, but I carry that pleasant exchange with me as a lesson. The Master now descends on skis as if he were walking and doesn't think about choosing where to go. It has become for him a "second nature." The beginner wonders how he does it and will perhaps discover over time that once the rules have been assimilated (much study)... then these must be forgotten (Phrase by Giuseppe Verdi).