Olga Chepovetsky

Tempo rubato is a great distinctive feature of the old master’s playing, almost forgotten today. All music, to a greater or lesser extent, should contain rubato in order for it to sound natural.Playing with rubato gives the music expressive freedom, allowing it space, room to breathe – just as the human voice has shifts in dynamic, tempo and cadence.

Maurizio Pollini speaks about the “great lesson” he received from Arthur Rubinstein in 1960. “He gave me a piece of advice the best I have had in all those years…. He said it was the very basis of his technique… The more I think of it, years later, the more I find it precious”.

For accuracy, constant care is required. I always practice distinctly, never indistinctly. Then, if I do play falsely, I hear the incorrect note at once. But absolutely distinct practice is an essential for accuracy.

My teacher [Felix Blumenfeld], who had been a pupil of Rubinstein, had of course learned most valuable ideas from him... Our talk was of music, not of technique. I had to find out my technique for myself.