The Lesson of Neuhaus
When I was a student, I read Neuhaus’s The Art of Piano Playing. He wrote that he learned Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata in one week – and that he could play it perfectly even if woken at three in the morning. I never forgot that image. It describes mastery better than anything else I’ve read.
Mastery is not perfection. It’s availability.
It’s when knowledge and motion are so integrated that they no longer depend on conditions – time, fatigue, fear. The music is part of you. You don’t “recall” it; it plays itself through you.
The Unknown on Stage
But even then, we still face the unknown. On stage, there are too many variables: the instrument, the acoustics, the state of mind. Anything can shift. The real performer learns not to control everything, but to stay alert and open – to play with what happens, not against it.
Sometimes progress is invisible for days or weeks. Then suddenly it’s there. I’ve seen this pattern all my life – you practice, struggle, feel blocked, and then, without warning, something clicks. It’s not magic; it’s the brain catching up. Most of the work happens below the surface.
That’s why I trust slow practice, eyes closed. It rewires how the hand and ear connect. The rest — the confidence, the sound projection, the risk – comes later.
The Performer’s Reality
The concert stage is not a safe place, but that’s why it matters.
We risk failure every time, and that risk is what gives the music its life.
I think of Neuhaus again. Being ready at three in the morning is not about heroism; it’s about being completely connected. When music becomes part of your reflexes, it stops being fragile.
We don’t remove uncertainty. We work with it. We learn to breathe with it.
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