When Making Music is a Matter of Style

HERE IS THE TRANSLATION, LIMPING ENGLISH, BUT CONTENT OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY.

INTERVIEWER: One of the things I think is interesting about your Recital Program is the differentiation of musical styles. I know this thanks to the conversations we have had the opportunity to have together. It is very interesting, how you differentiate, as a performer, the style of a Bach Prelude and Fugue from a Beethoven Sonata; what is the difference in style when playing Brahms or someone else from the twentieth century? Would you guide us and illustrate your ideas on musical style from the Baroque, to Classicism, to the Romantic period, and illustrate to us at the piano how you differentiate these musical styles.

PRATS: It is truly a great question, but it is one of my greatest interests in the musical field because it depends on the meaning of music.

I remember one of my pleasant experiences when I was a student, and I wanted to play with perfection, one two three (keeping time), and when you play perfectly what have you obtained? Nothing…

I remember this difference because I like, for example… This is perfect (Plays the piano) but what is this connection?

When I went to Vienna and saw people dancing, I couldn't play perfectly in the sense that I have just shown, and so when I began to think about "perfection" I thought of it as perfection of sensitivity, emotions and style, and then I felt that music had to be perfect but in many ways at the same time (Re-listening corrected in light of new considerations). So it sounds the same in a perfect way, but the style is completely different. If I am playing Chopin, then I am singing (Listening), but if I am playing Brahms I need the full sound of all the voices because I am moving towards Germany; I cannot think of Brahms like Chopin playing melody and accompaniment (Listening). It sounds wonderfully but to me it is not Brahms. In Brahms I hear Basses and Cellos and all these instruments together (Re-listening). It sounds differently this time… In Mozart the sound is so beautiful! (Listening). Singing as in an opera, but I could not play the Mozart style with this style (Re-listening). This is a Brahms sound, it is his style. Or if I am thinking of the Baroque for example, organ pieces, I am in Germany, because they belong to different blocks of sounds. It is not like the Italian Baroque where we play dynamics like the crescendos and diminuendos of violins, in the German organ… (Listening). If I am playing Russian music, for example Rachmaninov compared to Chopin, I need different sonorities, because for example Rachmaninov's concerto is written for large orchestras (By large the maestro means orchestras with a great number of elements), so it requires a different full sound, which is not that noble and enchanted cantabile sound heard in Chopin. For example (Listening to Chopin) Rachmaninov (Listening). If I were to play it (Re-listening)… I mean it is not the way the same Rachmaninov thought of it. His music reminds me very much of where and why it was composed. Style is part of a life. For me, music is the result of my beautiful memories. When I think of the music of a composer or a country, well, in a country I feel and remember the idiosyncrasies of the people, of their music. When I think of (cuban music: it is not understood what he says, his English unfortunately is not impeccable), I feel in the freedom of the "mulata", the body relaxed and flexible. When I think of Colombia I think of Colombian music (Listening). If I think of Schubert, I cannot think of Schubert very mechanically (Listening). In Schubert I am singing the music of Vienna. I think of the people in the street who sing… (Re-listening).

Interesting video that highlights style. The meaning of the music is always in the Composer's idea, and knowing Him helps us understand His way of expressing himself. The white and black keys with their little imperfections are always the same, but the stylistic thought is different. Students must be encouraged from their early years to listen to this or that Author and must learn to identify His way of expressing himself. From the Idea that forms, they will then work on how to realize it, with the help of a prepared teacher who does not only focus on the "metronome".

THANK YOU SIMONE for the translation!!!

THANK YOU PAOLO for your always valid comments!!

A big hello

saverio