Isidor Philipp - Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy

In interviews, his students remember him with a great deal of affection and remark about his gentle and patient manner as a teacher. Students commented that he stressed suppleness, firmness, rhythmic exactitude and articulation. He insisted on practicing with the metronome, first slowly, then incrementally faster for all technical exercises and in learning any new piece. He taught that octaves should be played from the wrist, with a motionless arm, and that fingers should attain true independence of one another. Like other great teachers, he did not have a 'system', but taught what the student needed at the time. Paul Loyonnet stated his ideals were velocity, sobriety of expression and the jeu perle style. As for interpretations, he stressed that the student must know the piece intimately and thoroughly before it can be properly played, but did not force any particular interpretation.

Philipp's repertoire was wide, from the earliest keyboard masters to contemporary composers. He believed that every pianist should be conversant in all styles and eras of piano, and did not shy from playing Bach or other early composers on a modern grand. One of his teaching points was that pianists should play any piece of music the way the composer intended, and seeking out what the composer intended is often a lifelong process. Nonetheless, each pianist should have his own views on the pieces and not just copy what another has done.

Philipp wrote, "The quality most desirable in piano playing is tone. Tone should be worked at from the first, and the pupil must listen attentively to it. To produce a beautiful tone, Thalberg said, 'one should in a way knead the keyboard with a hand of velvet, the key being rather felt than struck.' It is essential to maintain the utmost relaxation in the arms, wrists and hands." Fernando Laires said that Philipp insisted that the music and the tone should arise from deep within the piano, not pounded out at the keyboard, and by that he meant that he must come deep within one's soul, not at the fingertips.

Rubato, Philipp wrote, does not mean playing out of time, but rather, "any ritenuto that we may be impelled to make, must be compensated by a corresponding accelerando and also the opposite, the bass keeping exactly the time." Although Philipp abhorred distortions in interpreting pieces, he believed that "even when all the interpretive signs are exactly observed, there remains ample scope for self expression and liberty. You must be living and feeling the drama or the poem or the piece you play, in all its inflections and shades of emotion. What you do not feel yourself, your listeners will not get. You must be fully absorbed in the interpretation."

When his friend Claude Debussy was composing new pieces for the piano, he would often ask Philipp for advice on notation so that pianists would be able to better understand his nuances and approach. After considerable deliberation, they both decided that almost no pedal markings should be used in any of the published pieces. Their reasoning is that every piano is different in quality, every room or hall is different in size and resonance, and each pianist has different capabilities. To lock in one form of pedaling to cover all possible circumstances would place the pedaling notation above the effects that Debussy wished to achieve. Therefore, they decided that pedaling should be noted only where it is absolutely necessary, and gave discretion to the pianist to use it as needed. Although this has often been abused by some pianists who use it to cloud the harmonies, or achieve a very dry sound, it remains a point of discussion for every pianist who chooses to perform Debussy's piano works.

Harold Bradley stated that Philipp didn't necessarily always take the 'best' students as his pupils. Sometimes, he would accept a student who had only a few years of instruction and was at the intermediate level, and often he would refuse to teach even top level pianists. For Philipp, the most important attribute of a student wasn't his or her particular level of accomplishment, but whether they were teachable or not. Bradley said that Philipp could often tell a pianist's personality just by listening to him play.