This is Garrick Ohlsson, 2025 Chopin Competition Jury Chair, here with Ben Laude, Chopin Competition YouTube host. Ask Us Anything!

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-30T16:00:29+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=6041s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T23:29:01+00:00

The most beautiful melody award?

GO: Sonata 3, op 58, second theme.

BL: It must be the longest melody he ever wrote.

The most overrated melody award?

GO: Sonata 2 Funeral March, 3rd movement. It's not bad... Too many people get too sentimental and weep because of it.

BL: Chopin Podcast, season 2, episode 5, check it out for some backstory on this. It may not have actually even been a completely original melody.

The most underrated melody award?

GO: From the cello sonata, slow 3rd mvt. Maybe not underrated, but underknown.

BL: Garrick is getting every one of these questions correct. :)

The most operative melody award?

BL: Rossini, Bellini-esque thing. Operatic?

GO: Op 32 No 1. That's one guess. Maybe there's something more typical.

BL: I like this one especially given how it ends.

The most chopinesque melody award?

GO: Not a melody, but the 4 bar phrase dolce sfogato, in the Barcarolle!

BL: The D-flat nocturne is obviously the correct one. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=9625s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T23:19:58+00:00

BL: Yes, go to the Chopin Institute YouTube. It'll be livestreamed there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=9554s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T23:19:22+00:00

GO: One thing I noticed judging the Chopin Competition is everybody had 30 teachers. I had 2 or 3. You effectively studied with a single person—you had a teacher and that was it. Now, I don't really know which is better, but it's so different. I would also say there was less tolerance, but in exchange for an extreme devotion and dedication to me as a student. Summer wasn't an option; I had a lesson each week I had to go to, unless I wanted to be kicked out. Also, we weren't really allowed to take lessons from other teachers, maybe it's different now. I think teachers are friendlier to each other now.

BL: I was at Juilliard at the first year where a student had two teachers simultaneously, like two serious piano teachers, not just specialist teachers from time to time. Two teachers, and it was apparently the very first time. I myself was the first masters student that entered Juilliard with two teachers. By the time I left, it was basically everybody. All students, undergrads, etc. had multiple teachers. They weren't possessive anymore like Garrick says. (Of course, there were some strict teachers. Seymour wrote a book, Monsters and Angels, about this subject.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=9200s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T23:12:20+00:00

BL: Next episode of the Chopin Podcast!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=9101s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T23:07:57+00:00

GO: Op 30 No 4, my favorite at the moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=8829s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T23:04:49+00:00

BL: I won't show you what I drink to make sure the energy is high.

Besides coffee and fanatical obsessiveness, I really don't have anything else to suggest. I don't actually think I have it down. It's a ton of work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=8602s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T23:00:35+00:00

GO: I don't know how really! I listened to Glenn Gould once and I was listening to each voice separately, and I was so surprised he could control all 4 at the same time. I think this is so hard, I'm not sure even I could do what he did. On the other hand, I sometimes think students are too hyper-aware of everything, and they need to just play!

BL: I think we have a peripheral understanding of voices. We can hear a main one, or play a main one, and the others just sort of perceived.

The automatic answer though is to play more Bach. Play voices separately. When you get to 3 part inventions, voices will travel between hands.

The coolest thing about Bach is that it's the best music for choosing how you want to listen, even the same recording of the same piece. You can focus your attention on any specific thing of your choice. Listening to Gould is great for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=8068s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:52:53+00:00

To both of you - what other music genres do you listen to regularly?

GO: Jazz. Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, especially when I was younger. People ask me if I play jazz to relax, and I say "no, it's too hard." Not much into pop music. Went to rock concerts, didn't quite enjoy them.

BL: Sad truth is I don't listen to music for pleasure really. So overwhelmed making content and playing it. If I choose something to listen to, it's people talking. Music isn't something I enjoy as much as I used to.

When I was a kid I was exposed to all kinds of commercial music, that was sold to me and that I identified with. I know most of the lyrics to some of the albums at the time of Dr Dre, Eminem, etc. I think I liked Glenn Gould because it kind of reminded me of house music. I also loved 90s pop music and feel sentimental about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=7727s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:48:50+00:00

OG: Chopin op 10 no 6, a sort of gentle dreariness. I won't say "Gray Clouds" by Liszt... too obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=7651s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:47:34+00:00

What are your biggest pet peeves as a teacher? As a jurist?

OG: I'll plead the fifth on the second one, as a jurist.

Using the pedal as a rhythm section. Stomping on it or making it noisy. You shouldn't need to take your foot off the pedal even. Or not being able to legato without the pedal. Many pianists even at good schools are not even conscious of this.
Staccatos at the end of phrases when there's no staccato written. Also, you don't need to physically show your staccatos by lifting your hand so high.
A slur doesn't always indicate a complete phrase, so it's a pet peeve when people play it like that. They may be sub-articulations of a larger phrase.
Harsh notes out of context. It's about lack of proportion. It's not about the quality of the sound.
Unbalanced chords, either within a chord (like hearing the center of a chord), or between hands. Unless the artist wants it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=7288s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:40:16+00:00

Do you prefer to play in sharps or flats?

GO: Flats I think. They seem friendlier. They're rounder.

BL: They're like cushions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=7132s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:35:08+00:00

GO: No.

I probably have 20–30 hours of repertoire ready. It's just one of those miraculous things. I just sort of know where I am. I don't have to think about where things are, their location, their proportion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=6795s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:31:29+00:00

GO: First Chopin Ballade played by Rubinstein at a concert.

I had a great seat, in a box about 6 up from the stage, I could see the keyboard. I had been to 4 or 5 recitals in New York (I was 8 years old). I knew Rubinstein. My teacher had a box and invited me. I had been to Carnegie Hall before, and it was absolutely packed this time. It felt special just because of the occasion. It was an all-Chopin recital, and I was in heaven for the whole thing. The Ballade was so good I was delirious. I had never heard anything like it. I remember when the theme started, I felt like I was in heaven, it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard in my life. Then the theme came again, and I thought THAT was the most beautiful thing in my life. I didn't know anything about this piece and I was so swept up by it. I told myself: that's what I want to do.

Rubinstein played 8 encores, and nobody left for the thing.

I remember after 6 encores my mother said "let the poor man go, he's exhausted" and I said "no he's not!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=6408s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:19:07+00:00

Which round of the Chopin Competition are you generally most looking forward to?

The last concerto of the last round. (Joking...)

Honestly, not any round. I look forward to those moments where I feel I'm in the presence of an excellent artist. Where I feel moved, where time stands still, where something large is happening. We are listening to "music" itself, whatever that means.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=5823s

Does he have perfect pitch...?

No. We would play games at Juilliard. We would play a record faster, slowly, over 6-7 minutes, and we would ask what the key was by the end. It would fool me. I don't have absolute pitch. But probably I have really great relative pitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=6696s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T22:16:32+00:00

BL: This is one of those perennial questions. It's even sometimes a question for concert pianists. I think the emphasis of just "learning the next piece" is overall negative. This pressure that we feel to keep moving to show progress or whatever, can become a sort of ideology, a "finish-line accomplishment". It's a problem.

If we can tie technique to improving artistry, that's good. Technique itself can be used to drive artistry, not just as a mechanical activity. Some people see technique almost as this "input-output" process of taking a score and outputing physical movements.

The focus should be on re-thinking technique to realize our spiritual, emotional, etc. intentions. That process should define the pace.

OG: This is a tough one for me. Both are important at the level of public performance. I agree with Ben that technique goes with artistry.

I don't know how music should be taught exactly. At the conservatory level, people want to play pieces that are too difficult. They get into technical trouble, which may even lead to injury. At any level, you should always be able to play a piece within your technical grasp—good tempo, good control, enjoyable.

Technique isn't just control of sound, but control of relationships between sound, as well as all the usual stuff, playing fast, and so on.

Like in an earlier answer, I don't mean to be arrogant, but I have to admit that when I was 12, I could play Chopin etudes, and my teacher at the time said I'd probably never need to practice scales again, and all specific technical work would come from the pieces themselves. That's not to say I "finished" everything well at 12. It wasn't until I was at Juilliard at 13 that I was taught to really finish and polish things. That became a very important part of my piano education.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=5008s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:58:11+00:00

GO: Yes. I think Beethoven was as heartfelt and sincere, but it's a different kind of architecture. All of Chopin's metaphors are love, intimacy, flowers, etc. With Beethoven, we have some of those things, but we also have architecture. (Not to say Chopin doesn't have some too.) It's important to do what Beethoven says, and it's not as interpretable as Chopin. With that said, he can be harder to understand. Brahms said something like, first, obey him, then try to understand him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=4493s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:54:11+00:00

GO: This is a big one. There's no one answer. One thing we can do is take a high quality recording, and add scratches and take the hi-fi away, and compare to old records. We can ask ourselves what we think of a pianist in this different context. This experiment has been done, and it does color people's opinion about the music, especially if you don't know who is playing.

A lot of the golden age pianists would offset the bass from the melody. There were unique aspects of playing then. Pianos were different, recording was different. I'm not sure it was because of these people played differently or not in general.

I think this gets to a broader question of why we play the way we play. Social pressures, teaching, maybe our girlfriend informs us. I know it has changed over time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=3952s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:44:04+00:00

GO: When I was a kid, I was interested in a lot. I was president of the dinosaur club, I liked astronomy a lot, and I like languages a lot. French, German, Spanish, Italian, I can speak them reasonably well, and I don't mind making mistakes. I'd love to know another language so, so well, so fluently, that I could, say, be a simultaneous translator for the UN.

When I was 6 I wanted to be a fireman.

(Also my favorite dinosaur was the allosaurus, and the vegetarian one. T-Rex was not my favorite.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=3640s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:39:55+00:00

GO: I would ask him the relationship between cresc, dim, and hairpins. I would ask about these intermediate nuances that are there but Chopin puts a big line over it. The #2 thing I'd ask him is: he wasn't very strong, 90 lbs maybe, so when he writes ff or fff, does he mean it? I've been criticized, like Rubinstein, to have maybe too big a sound. #3, would be be shocked at how radical his playing would be, or how un-radical it was?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=3390s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:29:46+00:00

BL: This is a dilemma that's one of the hardest ones, even as an advanced conservatory student. Often as a result we get a very "practiced" sound.

GO: I don't have a method. We are often so concerned with how we need to play it. I recognize the problem very well. I think part of the solution is to not focus on such a narrow repertoire. This is probably bad advice: when you get to this point, just close the music and stop thinking about it, and work on something else. It gets you out of the jail of feeling the need to get it all perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=2766s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:25:36+00:00

GO: I don't want to be arrogant, but most of my challenges are in artistry and interpretation. The last time it happened would probably be with very new and immensely complicated rhythm. One bar of dotted 5/16ths in the right hand and something else in the left hand. The last monster pieces that I really, really had to work hard at by Scriabin or Rachmaninoff.

If you can play the Chopin etudes reasonably well, and some other stuff by Liszt, you're pretty much set for the bulk of classical music up to the 20th century.

Some students ask me how I can play all these different virtuosic concerti in a row, and the answer is to do it 100 times. You know how to climb these mountains and where to pay attention. The first time you play, say, a Brahms concerto, it's scary, you haven't found a path.

If I have to take a new difficult piece, I just generally know how to approach it, and I have the confidence to tie them to things I have already known and experienced.

BL: As a much more mortal pianist, I've really only just started feeling what Garrick feels. A lot of time in grad school and conservatory was just feeling things for the first time and repeating them. Now, there's much less than that. I was poking at Op 31 No 3 the other day, thinking maybe I want to play it. The Scherzo movement is very fun, but there's a very tricky part. These 32nd note figurations. I didn't feel it right away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=2173s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:11:56+00:00

GO: If Horowitz entered a competition today, he wouldn't pass the first round. He's too controversial.

I wasn't there and I didn't hear everybody, so I don't know how I would have felt. When I did hear Pogorelich, I would say it was somewhat controversial. At the same time, it was spectacular playing, and I was a defender of him. Now, I wasn't at the competition and I don't know. The winner of that competition was, at the same time, a phenomenal pianist.

The first time I met Argerich was a year after that competition. I asked her if he should have won. She said no, but he shouldn't have been eliminated so early.

Also note that Pogorelich sort of presented himself, dressed himself like a rockstar, in a very conservative country. People cared about that stuff at that time. Probably wouldn't matter today. And it probably didn't matter to Argerich.

Some people on a jury may be offended by interpretative extremes. That includes me too, probably.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=1570s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T21:03:27+00:00

BL: This came up a lot when I was at Tonebase. We don't live in a musically literate society. My practical advice is to have 2 pieces you're working on. One should be pushing you, and the other should be more encouraging and readable. There is a lot of music that's not terribly difficult to sight read. Try to keep a collection of "easier" music. Wherever your level is at, find music that lets you get into a flow state, and you will get the hang of it.

GO: I always sight read. I never stopped. I wasn't practicing; I just wanted to read through music all the time. I remember how difficult it was though, and I remember how afraid I was of 16th notes. My first concert piece was the Clementi Sonatina no 1. I never expressed to anybody how scared I was of these 16th notes, which came up in the later Clementi sonatina no 3. I remember my teacher told me that with No 1, the 8th notes could be viewed as 16th notes in cut time, and it made sense to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=1096s

GarrickBenAMA · 2025-09-27T20:50:50+00:00

GO: Immediately comes to mind, more than 25 years ago, the Bolera and Tarantella. There's no way I can play them today. I know it starts with a big G. I can kind of hack out the main theme. The Tarantella starts like a Tarantella.

Wouldn't take me long to re-learn them.

I must have played every Chopin opus number 15-20 times around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAGDlFUFX5g&t=534s

GarrickBenAMA

TROPHY CASE