“…Liszt is at this moment playing one of my Etudes […] I wish I could steal his manner of rendering my own pieces.”
from letter to Ferdinand Hiller, June 20, 1830
“Caress the key, never bash it!”
“Hold the hand as if suspended in the air (without gravity).”
“The same does not mean in the same way.”
“Let your left hand be your conductor; it’s like a watch. As for the right hand, do with it what you want and what you can. ”
“The hands must hover over the keyboard rather than stick to it.”
Orig. “Die Hände müssen mehr schweben, als an den Tasten kleben”.
“The surface of the distant part of the finger must rest almost entirely on the key.”
“Grab the chord, drawing the fingers slightly inwards towards the palm, and do not let them fall on the keys like lifeless pokers.”