Kovacevich Teaches Schubert!
Stephen Kovacevich was born on December 17, 1940 in Los Angeles, California. He began his piano studies with Lev Schorr in 1948, and in 1951, at the age of 11, made his public concert debut in San Francisco. When he was 14, he played Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major and Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 1959 he went to London on a scholarship to pursue his piano training with Dame Myra Hess.
Mr. Kovacevich now has an international reputation as a performer. He is considered as one of the most searching interpreters of the classical repertoire, and he has won great admiration for his recordings of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Chopin.
I wanted to see how well he does as a teacher. It is very clear to me that some outstanding music performers are lousy teachers. I have seen many occasions where the fine performer simply insists that the student play the composition his own way. Nothing is ever left for the student to explore or create. As such, I was really quite impressed with the sensitivity and great insight as I viewed how Kovacevich approaches the coaching of a student in Schubert’s Impromptus Nos. 1 and 3 from Op 90.
I liked his thoughtful instruction. Judge for yourself, by clicking on the following video. Your comments are always welcome; you can enter them at the bottom of this Post.