“The main difference, we are told, between the amateur and the professional golfer is the fact that the latter is always aiming at the pin, while the former has in his mind a vague picture of getting somewhere reasonably near it.”— P.G. Wodehouse
It applies elsewhere. Yuja Wang makes it look easy. She can fill every corner of Disney Hall with the toughest the repertoire has to offer and not break a sweat where others show the strain. Here is Ms. Wang at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the much loved Mendelssohn 1st Concerto. Great performance (not a surprise) and some topnotch camerawork showing how her shoulders, arms, wrist, and fingers get to where they need to be with no tension or excess motion. It’s hard for a piano student to glean much technique from virtuosi. But sometimes it happens. Emulated that action and away went stress and shoulder stiffness that normally comes with piano practice. Still years and maybe the next life away from that kind of pyrotechnics but it applies to the duffer’s Schubert and Brahms as well. Is it ever nice to finally understand and feel what excellent teachers have been saying for the past eight years.