Nikolayeva

The marvelous Russian teacher, Tatiana Nikolayeva, played the way we breathe, with the same pauses which we take to convey emotion, or the sense of a phrase when reading or acting. This gives each note a chance to develop a symphony of nuance and tone, so that some notes can be flutes and some oboes. Such nuance necessitates taking one's time: throwing the orchestra to the wind and taking off is like Toad of Toad Hall in his jalopy, scarf flying, on his way to his next accident, a brash old frog, frock-coat flying. Rather, notes have lives of their own: they are monuments, cataclysms, not brigands on the way to a burglary.

    Tempo is the great enemy of emotion, which by definition is a break in the heartbeat, a skip in the blood, a moment out of the race , a time for fastidious contemplation, meditation.

    [See here Brinkerhoff's thoughts on tempi, above. --The Producer]