Honest question: I have been watching a few Andras Schiff masterclass videos on youtube recently, and he is noticing stuff I never would have noticed, and he thinks playing is ugly when it sounds good to me etc. Now, don’t misunderstand, the students play much better after his instructions. But I was just thinking: When you are this critical do you ever enjoy listening to other people play?
You’d have to ask him.
Given how “pretty” Schiff’s sound is, I can understand his thinking everyone else sounds ugly by comparison.
One of my teachers wouldn’t listen to any other pianist because she was always internal subdividing and criticising.
I wonder if someone like Zimerman is ever pleased with his own performances, but I also know that he likes to listen to a lot of recordings.
I think Schiff’s masterclasses are really good. I’ve watched several of them and they’ve often made me realize things about the composition I had never thought about earlier, and as you say he spots details which tend to escape your attention otherwise. I think he’s overdoing it a little to make the pupils go through this process themselves next time they’re studying a work, and have them think about music in this way. For me he’s been especially interesting in classical repertoire where he quickly makes me understand how little I know about how the music is constructed, but more surprisingly I think he’s given real kosher advice on romantic repertoire as well, in which I normally enjoy him much less when he plays himself.