Josef Hofmann, Vol. 4

The only occasion that I saw and heard Hofmann perform was when I was a teenager: the Schumann concerto, at Lewissohn Stadium in Queens, New York City. What impressed me most was his wrist motions, jumping away from the piano keys. In my opinion, therein lies one of the secrets of his tone quality, which I now can imitate only very, very approximately. My piano teacher does much better, although she does it naturally and without understanding the physical principles involved.

I presently believe that another one of the secrets of Hofmann's playing was his good touch -- partly attributable to his wrist motions, partly to his finger relaxation. In this way he avoided banging, for banging on the keys produce harsh tone quality. I can prove all this on physical grounds.

When I worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories and told my colleagues, both engineers and physicists, that I could control the tone quality by the way in which I would push the keys, they all doubted it very vigorously. They rightfully believed that when the hammer strikes the key the hammer is in what physicists call "free fall" -- that is, not under the control of the pianist. But they wrongfully believed that therefore the tone quality is independent of the pianist's touch. When I explained to them my theory, based upon a combination of advanced and elementary physics, they all agreed.

Apparently Josef Hofmann, a genius in his own right with many patents to his name, either instinctively or by a combination of instinct and listening, discovered how to control the tone. On the other hand, as I recall from watching a child prodigy when I was a teenager, it seemed to me that he had also mastered the art of controlling the tone.

At any rate, I would urge you to listen to the Brunswick recording, and to do so before listening to the Casimir unless you enjoy hypermodern music or enjoy Hofmann no matter what he plays.


Hofmann: The Greatest Pianist.   April 8, 2000
David I. Caplan (Madison NJ, USA)
3 out of 16 found this review helpful

I am an amateur pianist who, as of 50 years ago, had the greatest technique of any amateur pianist that my cousin, who then played trumpet under Toscanini, had ever heard. On the other hand, I should like to say upfront that Hofmann's technique is the only technique of all the greats that I cannot begin to touch. I say this even as of today when my technique is far better than 50 years ago -- attributable to a new method of piano practicing that I have discovered, aided by listening to Hofmann's Brunswick and Casimir recordings combined with learning and practicing Tai Chi under a Chinese master, who once took second prize in an all-China contest.

This Brunswick recording includes some really phenomenal playing. I myself play some of the pieces on it, including the Rachmaninoff Prelude in g. My piano teacher of 55 years ago - who had studied under Schnabel and Alexander Siloti, and who later concertized regularly in Boston - once told me that Rachmaninoff said that Hofmann played the Rachmaninoff g minor Prelude better than he himself could!

On another note, about a year ago my wife and I went to a piano concert at which the pianist played the Rachmaninoff g minor Prelude. My wife, my greatest critic, told me that I played it better. Then we went into our automobile, where I just happened to have record player set at the beginning of the Hofmann Brunswick recording of this g minor prelude. She did not recognize the piece! She could not believe it when I told her it was the same piece that the pianist had just played and that she had correctly identified as one of the pieces that I play!

Hofmann's tempo is breathtaking. Yet Hofmann makes it sound so easy. The same can be said for other pieces in this Brunswick Recording.

In the slow middle section of the g minor Prelude, Hofmann makes all the polyphonic lines stand out with impeccable clarity. Listening to this playing from start to finish gave me a clue as to how to practice to achieve his tone and improve my technique, all at the same time. As a result, my playing has dramatically improved in the past three or four months. For example, today I can trill with my second and third fingers, which I could never do before with any degree of usefulness compared to with other fingerings. I no longer avoid trilling with the second and third fingers. I can do all my trills much faster and more controllably as to dynamics than I ever dreamed I was capable of doing. I also was able to bring out polyphonic lines much more clearly than ever before. Lest it was all imagination and ego, I went to another, more recent one of my piano teachers who hadn't seen me in eight years. She agreed that my playing both musically and technically had dramatically improved and was ready to believe me when I said that I had been taking lessons with several other teachers in the interim. When I told her that of these teachers the most important one was Josef Hofmann, she gave a laugh of relief. Parenthetically, she herself gave her debut at Carnegie and earned a rather good revue in the New York Times that she distributes as advertising.

I attribute my own dramatic improvement in no small measure to listening to Hofmann's playing on this Brunswick Recording, and figuring out what he was doing and how he was doing it. But it has not enabled me to play the Rachmanioff g minor Prelude anywhere even remotely nearly as fast.

I have rated this CD with 5 stars.!

For those of you who don't know me - probably all of you - I hold a PhD degree in mathematical physics.


Josef Hofmann: Wonderful playing, a little surface noise   March 15, 2000
Richard Mathisen (Ambler, PA USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Volume 4 is a single CD containing recordings of Josef Hofmann from 1922-23 known as the Acoustic Brunswicks. The surface noise is much better than Volume 3, but these are still a little noisy. This is Hofmann in his prime, about age 46. The playing is delectable, as always with Hofmann. It is again Hofmann in the shorter pieces -- a nice selection without much duplication. My assumption is that anyone interested in Hofmann will start by getting Volumes 1 & 2 -- the Chopin Concertos and the 1937 Golden Jubilee Recital. Beyond that, in choosing among Volumes 3 to 6, Volume 4 probably the best choice, if you can take a little surface noise. (Otherwise, Volume 5 would be my suggestion.)