«The sound image of the instrument» in the performance concept of a music piece».
Background. Modern musicology pays great attention to the problems of performing art, its style classification and definition of parameters that determine the principles of the work of a particular performer with the author’s sheet music. However, one often overlooks the fact that, as an art of sounds, musical performance calls for a number of specific abilities and skills, in particular, the skill of forehearing which ensures the perception of the graphics of a musical text in pitch and metro-rhythmic parameters before the moment of sound realization. Objåctives. The piano culture shaped in the nineteenth century is today an artistic phenomenon in which historical and national styles, personal experience of professional and amateur musicians, a huge audience of listeners are united around a musical instrument whose sound capabilities can be treated quite variously. Piano literature features a huge number of works, a significant part of which has long been familiar to everyone. So, a performer has a natural wish to offer a different concept based on the individual intonational model. The intonational model of the performer is formed and developed in close connection with their technique, and the image of the instrument in this pair is primary: desire to achieve a certain sound makes up the performance technique, and then this technique influences the artistic intentions of the performer. The purpose of the research is to analyze how the composer’s and performer’s «sound images of instruments» interact; to find out how the specificity of the personal «sound image of the instrument» affects the artistic and technical components of the composer’s music piece; to consider how the performer tries to reconcile the author’s concept and his own intonational world. Methods. To study the influence of the «sound image of the instrument» of the performer on the realization of the artistic and technical tasks of the composition, the etude cycles by R. Schumann and F. Liszt based on N. Paganini’s caprices were analyzed, in particular, the dramaturgy of cycles and aspects of the «sound image of the piano» embodiment in the works of each composer. While researching this subject we have studied records of G. Ginzburg, whose repertoire includes several etudes by R. Schumann and F. Liszt, in particular, etude No. 1 and the etude «Hunting». Performance versions of J. Demus and E. Kisin have been considered, too. Results. The virtuosity of N. Paganini, which changed the understanding of sound production abilities of the violin, prompted many composers to create works on his themes. The beginning of this tradition was laid by F. List and R. Schumann, whose «Etudes on Paganini» clearly show the differences between «piano sound images». Despite the fact that R. Schumann’s and F. Liszt’s cycles demonstrate different approaches of composers to the understanding of the piano, they have a number of common features. Both composers turned twice to the caprice material, modifying it, because, in our opinion, the transcribed material in some way coincided with the individual creative search of each of the composers. Also in both cases, the composers strived to create a cycle. Having a choice of 24 caprices, R. Schumann and F. Liszt not only partially coincided in the choice of musical material, but they even open the cycle with the same caprice. This concludes the dramatic similarity. F. Liszt builds «Grandes études de Paganini» on the principle of whipping up emotions closer to the final, and R. Schuman tends to use the suite principle, typical for his creativity. As a practical musician, R. Schumann understood the importance of improving the piano technique for achieving a new, romantic piano sound; he twice turned to the work of the outstanding virtuoso and created two books of «Études de Paganini» op. 3 (1832) and op. 10 (1833). R. Schumann avoids transparency of the texture, musical development of his works is rich in polyphonic techniques, intersratal layers, hidden voices with considerable intonational and rhythmic independence. Unlike R. Schumann, who created etudes for the improvement of technique, Liszt defines his works as «Bravura Etudes of Extreme Performance Difficulty after N. Paganini» in the first edition and «Grand Etudes after N. Paganini» in the second one. Thus he pointed not only to the stage, concert destination of the cycle, but also to its unprecedented technical complexity. The realization of the author’s intention of a music piece largely depends on the «sound image of the instrument» of the performer. The paper analyzes the records of Gregory Ginzburg, whose repertoire includes several etudes from «Paganini » cycles by R. Schumann and F. Liszt. The approach declared by the pianist – «to treat with extreme clarity» – is perceived as the basic one in the analysis of Ginzburg’s versions of etudes. Thus, the bravura episode of the introduction and the exhibiting function of the etude, as well as its obvious technical complexity, provokes the performer to display a virtuosic beginning in their romantic understanding – the power of sound and orientation to an extremely fast tempo. However, G. Ginzburg interprets the etude, without coming into conflict with Schumann’s «sound image of the instrument» and the violin genesis of the piece. We also analyzed the etude «Hunting» by F. Liszt, which is a typical example of Liszt’s compositional style characterized by dynamic power, a broad brushstroke, a fresco style of writing. Despite this, Ginzburg avoids all these elements, characteristic of F. List’s «sound image of the piano.» G.Ginzburg plays both F. Liszt’s «Hunting» and R. Schumann’s «Hunting» slowly and carefully, interpreting them as a sketch «from life.» Ñonclusions. Research materials can be used in the practical work of pianists, lecture courses on the Theory of Piano Performance, Methods of Piano Teaching, History of Piano Art, Musical Interpretation.