Yoheved Kaplinsky on why excitement isn’t about volume
Juilliard’s piano chair on volume, direction and why a great piece keeps changing with you.
Yoheved Kaplinsky has chaired the piano department at the Juilliard School since 1997 and is artistic advisor of Juilliard’s Pre-College Division. She has taught at Juilliard since 1993 and often serves on the juries of major international piano competitions.
Here are nine of her best tips, taken from feedback she gave young pianists after live performances, with a link to each moment on video.
1. Excitement has little to do with volume
Excitement has very little to do with volume. It has to do with the way you move the sound, the way you move rhythmically.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
2. Find your peak, then start below it
If you want a sense of movement and direction to a certain point, you can’t start too loud, because then you have nowhere to go. Always try to think of where the peak is, where you want the piece to have the most volume and most excitement, and go down from there.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
3. Forced sound sounds angry
There’s a very thin line between joy and anger when you play loud. When you get to a point where you are forcing the sound, it will always sound angry rather than joyous.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
4. With Debussy, do exactly what he says
There’s no other composer that is as particular and as precise in notating what he wants. If you do exactly what he says and you just work on the sound and color to make it your own, you’ll be okay.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
5. Don’t sink into every long note
There’s always a danger with this rhythm that you end up accenting the long note each time, so it breaks up the phrase. You have to think of a direction and an arrival point, and that will give you an energy of moving forward instead of sinking into every long note.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
6. Play the melody with only the bass line
What I do with my students: I always make them play the theme only with the bass line, without anything else, because that gives them a sense of the harmonic structure.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
7. Find the glue that holds a piece together
In a long Chopin movement, she pointed to the small interval that opens it.
That descending half step is actually the glue that holds the piece together, because every theme and every transition has it in it.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
8. The first page can be the hardest
She shared a story from her student days about Chopin’s Second Ballade.
I ran into Emanuel Ax and asked him what he was working on. He said, “I’m working on the Chopin Second Ballade and it’s driving me crazy.” I said, “Yes, that coda is really tough.” He said, “No, no, it’s the first page.”
Yoheved Kaplinsky
9. A great piece changes as you do
You’re going to live with this piece for a long time, and it’s going to change in your own mind very many times.
Yoheved Kaplinsky
Quotes are lightly edited for length and clarity. They come from Ms. Kaplinsky’s comments as a judge at the 2023 Piano Star International Competition. You can watch the full performances and feedback on the Piano League YouTube channel.
Quick question
Which tip will you try first?
Have a story tip or a correction? Tell us.