151: Szymon Jakubowski (Classical Improvisation on Piano/Organ)

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[@NikhilHoganShow]

0:00 Intro 0:36 Interview start 2:09 When did you start the piano? 4:52 Did you ever improvise as a child? 6:09 Did your first piano teacher give you music theory lessons? 6:33 Are you Polish or German? 6:53 Did you play organ growing up? 7:53 Wanting to be a concert pianist at the conservatory 8:48 How many hours a day did you practice as a child and then at conservatory? 9:12 What was your curriculum at the conservatory? 10:48 Do you have perfect pitch? 11:28 Do you have any advice for improving sightreading? 14:19 Did playing through Telemann's flute sonata accompaniments help you later with generalbass? 15:52 What's your advice on piano technique? 18:20 What do you recommend for piano literature for beginner students? 20:13 Chopin and Polish music education 21:57 Heinrich Neuhaus 24:16 No classical improvisation growing up in Poland 26:00 Getting burned out with the piano 28:05 Who was your concert pianist idol growing up? 30:00 What was the answer to your burnout? 30:58 Did you at first only play repertoire on the organ? 32:44 Formal organ and organ improvisation studies 34:15 Who did you study with on organ improvisation and what did you learn? 35:34 Wolfgang Seifen tells Szymon not to think in terms of function theory but to use the bass instead 37:26 More on the organ improvisation curriculum 39:37 When did you graduate with organ and when did you discover partimento? 41:58 Thinking about form in improvisation 43:29 Do you use any roman numerals or function theory? 44:08 Bach Eb major prelude 46:08 What about thinking in terms of chord inversions? 47:47 Up 4, Down 5 49:24 Baroque improvisation example 52:54 Tips on improvising in the Baroque style 55:23 Who are you favorite Baroque composers? 55:50 17th-century composers 56:49 18th-century classical and galant music 59:26 Do you have to be genius to improvise? 1:00:59 How do you prevent bad counterpoint at the piano? 1:03:30 Chopin used figured bass? 1:05:26 Romantic improvisation example 1:09:19 What's the difference in the romantic style between Chopin, Brahms or Schumann? 1:11:00 Modern improvisation example 1:13:20 Tips on improvising in a modern style 1:15:05 Being an improviser, do you interpret repertoire differently? 1:16:24 Wrapping Up 1:17:50 Outro

[@guscox9651]

Another excellent, inspiring interview avaliable for free. Thank you nikhil for once again asking all the right questions.

[@NikhilHoganShow]

Thank you, much apprappreciated!

[@lovaaaa2451]

Interesting mention about playing like Zimmerman being impossible. Apparantly even the ''live'' footage of his Chopin ballades is not actually live but glued together from different recording sessions and made to look genuine. This speaks to the level of hysteria around technical perfectionism we have obtained which of course makes all prospective piano prodigies mentally ill and makes them quit, I was one of them but has now moved over to church music in the catholic setting which is heavenly compared to that and so much fun.

[@teresavilaplana]

Szymon is a Maestro and a very nice person. In Spain we already miss him after workshop with him last week 😢

[@monscarmeli]

Modern improv on "Happy Birthday", pretty awesome! The melody is crystal clear for a bit at 1:11:53 .... TBH, haven't had time to listen to the whole interview, but I have to assume a crucial element of good improv is a very comprehensive knowledge of the pertinent literature, simply to have the "experience" to imitate it effectively.

[@johnerskine8367]

Brilliant: improvisations at genius level!

[@kodokunatamashi5987]

this was so enjoyable to listen to

[@NikhilHoganShow]

Glad to hear that!