Heinrich Neuhaus: A Performer's Views on the Realisation of Music

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Abstract

Applying the word 'realism' to music is often a contentious issue. This article investigates how the beliefs of the eminent pianist-pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus (1888-1964) show it was still an important concept for performers in Russia. The article contextualizes Neuhaus's formative years to demonstrate that his interest in the work of Ferruccio Busoni and his early inclination towards composition put him in contact with the movement away from musical 'realism'. However, Neuhaus's decision to relinquish composition in favour of becoming a performer pushed him closer towards the specifically Russian Realist aesthetics of the late nineteenth-century. Neuhaus's understanding of 'realism' is thus positioned in relation to figures including the 'Peredvizhniki' painters, Konstantin Stanislavsky and Lev Tolstoy. An indication of just how influential his understanding was is seen through how this attitude was adopted by Soviet musicologists in the middle of the 20th century, including Lev Barenboim and Grigory Kogan.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)355-369
JournalInternational Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music
Volume46
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2015

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