Isidor Philipp

In interviews his students remember him with a great deal of affection and remark about his gentle and patient manner as a teacher. Students commented that he stressed suppleness, firmness, rhythmic exactitude and articulation. He insisted on practicing with the metronome, first slowly, then incrementally faster for all technical exercises and in learning any new piece. He taught that octaves should be played from the wrist, with a motionless arm, and that fingers should attain true independence of one another. Like other great teachers, he did not have a 'system', but taught what the student needed at the time. Paul Loyonnet stated his ideals were velocity, sobriety of expression and the jeu perle style. As for interpretations, he stressed that the student must know the piece intimately and thoroughly before it can be properly played, but did not force any particular interpretation. Philipp's repertoire was wide, from the earliest keyboard masters to contemporary composers. He believed that every pianist should be conversant in all styles and eras of piano, and did not shy from playing Bach or other early composers on a modern grand. One of his teaching points was that pianists should play any piece of music the way the composer intended, and seeking out what the composer intended is often a lifelong process. Nonetheless, each pianist should have his own views on the pieces and not just copy what another has done. Philipp wrote, "The quality most desirable in piano playing is tone. Tone should be worked at from the first, and the pupil must listen attentively to it. To produce a beautiful tone, Thalberg said, 'one should in a way knead the keyboard with a hand of velvet, the key being rather felt than struck.' It is essential to maintain the utmost relaxation in the arms, wrists and hands." Fernando Laires said that Philipp insisted that the music and the tone should arise from deep within the piano, not pounded out at the keyboard, and by that he meant that he must come deep within one's soul, not at the fingertips. Rubato, Philipp wrote, does not mean playing out of time, but rather, "any ritenuto that we may be impelled to make, must be compensated by a corresponding accelerando and also the opposite, the bass keeping exactly the time." Although Philipp abhorred distortions in interpreting pieces, he believed that "even when all the interpretive signs are exactly observed, there remains ample scope for self expression and liberty. You must be living and feeling the drama or the poem or the piece you play, in all its inflections and shades of emotion. What you do not feel yourself, your listeners will not get. You must be fully absorbed in the interpretation." When his friend Claude Debussy was composing new pieces for the piano, he would often ask Philipp for advice on notation so that pianists would be able to better understand his nuances and approach. After considerable deliberation, they both decided that almost no pedal markings should be used in any of the published pieces. Their reasoning is that every piano is different in quality, every room or hall is different in size and resonance, and each pianist has different capabilities. To lock in one form of pedaling to cover all possible circumstances would place the pedaling notation above the effects that Debussy wished to achieve. They decided that pedaling only where it is absolutely necessary, and gave discretion to the pianist to use it as needed. Although this has often been abused by some pianists who use it to cloud the harmonies, or achieve a very dry sound, it remains a point of discussion for every pianist who chooses to perform Debussy's piano works. Harold Bradley (pianist) stated that Philipp did not necessarily always take the 'best' students as his pupils. Sometimes, he would accept a student who had only a few years of instruction and was at the intermediate level, and often he would refuse to teach even top level pianists. For Philipp, the most important attribute of a student wasn't his or her particular level of accomplishment, but whether they were teachable or not. Bradley said that Philipp could often tell a pianist's personality just by listening to him play. Bradley created an institute (Bradley Institute of Music) that embodied the educational philosophies of Isidor Philipp. The institute's staff worked closely with Philipp to create a musical education that worked from pre-school aged children on.

His compositions include Rêverie mélancolique and Sérénade humoristique for orchestra, a concertino for three pianos (which has been recently performed in the USA), The Fantasmagories Suite, Suite for Two Pianos, 6 Concert Studies after Chopin's Études, Concert Étude after Chopin's Minute Waltz, 2 Valse-Caprices on Themes of Schubert, 4 Valse-Caprices on themes of Strauss, and arrangements and transcriptions such as the Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream for two pianos, and a large number of works by Bach transcribed for one or two pianos. His composition Feux-Follets (from "Pastels For Piano", no. 3) was recorded by his pupil Guiomar Novaes, a Brazilian pianist. He wrote a considerable number of transcriptions for the left hand. Philipp's compositions and transcriptions often require a high degree of finger dexterity and lightness of touch, and he liked to work in rapid successions of double thirds, fourths and octaves in many of his pieces. Leopold Godowsky's Suite for the Left Hand and Pierre Augiéras' Twenty-five Studies for the left Hand alone were dedicated to Isidor Philipp. Philipp is best known for his technical exercises and educational works. Additionally, he published an anthology of French music from the 17th century to the end of the 19th. He was a regular contributor to The Étude, Le Ménéstral, The Musician, and Le Courrier Musical magazines, and published several short books on technique, including "Some Thoughts on Piano Playing." He is probably best known for his publication of "The Complete School of Piano Technique", published by Theodore Presser. He also edited music by Albéniz, Alkan, Bizet, Chabrier, Chaminade, Couperin, Debussy, Delibes, Dvořák, Fauré, Franck, Godard, Gouvy, d'Indy, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, Lully, Massenet, Mozart, Pierné, Prokofiev, Pugno, Rachmaninoff, Rameau, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Scarlatti, Schumann, Widor, and others. Most of these edited works, especially the piano concertos, remain the standard interpretations today and have not been improved upon or updated. Philipp recorded several works by his teacher Saint-Saëns: these include chamber music and the Scherzo for two pianos, with his assistant Marcelle Herrenschmidt (1895–1974). Additionally, he recorded the Saint-Saëns Violin Sonata No. 1 and Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 for the Pearl label, as well as a collection of his own pieces and works of Italian masters of the renaissance. There exists a recording of Philipp playing the piano in the Bach 5th Brandenburg Concerto, which aired by the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the early 1930s and was made by recording off the radio. Philipp played the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K 459 with the Pro Musica Orchestra, Jean-Baptiste Mari conductor. Philipp can be heard playing Saint-Saëns' Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 75 Additionally, the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459 can be heard, which is likely a radio broadcast made when he was 90 years old. He also recorded with Marcelle Herrenschmidt Saint-Saëns' Scherzo for Two Pianos, Op. 87.

Philipp allowed his name to be associated with the Bradley Institute for Music Education Research, Ltd., which was founded in Paris, in 1930, but moved to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, under the guidance of his pupil Harold Bradley. The Institute was devoted not only to teaching music, but also to documenting the vast knowledge of teaching traditions that Philipp had learned during his long life. Philipp's friend, violinist John Corigliano Sr., was among the original Board of Directors. Pianist Grace Barnes and violinist Deryck Aird served as music teachers along with Bradley for several decades. The list of Isidor Philipp's students who became notable pianists, composers or conductors is very long, and includes Stell Andersen, Dwight Anderson, Grace Barnes, Emma Boynet, Harold Bradley, John Buttrick, Ellen Gilberg, Marcel Ciampi, Serge Conus, Aaron Copland, Jeanne-Marie Darré, Pierre Dervaux, Ania Dorfmann, Rolande Falcinelli, Felix Fox, Jean Françaix, Norman Fraser, Henri Gagnon, Florence Parr Gere, Youra Guller, Grace Hofheimer, Georges Hugon, Fernando Laires, Malvina Leshock, Yvonne Loriod, Nikita Magaloff, Federico Mompou, Léo-Pol Morin, Guiomar Novaes, Ozan Marsh, Wilfrid Pelletier, Émile Poillot, Gray Perry, Harrison Potter, noted philosopher Albert Schweitzer, Phyllis Sellick, Soulima Stravinsky, Louise Talma, Alexander Tcherepnin, Dorothy Wanderman, Mabel Madison Watson, Beveridge Webster, and Victor Young. Rena Kyriakou (Christina Giannelou) Additionally, many prominent and well established pianists would seek out his advice, particularly on playing French composers, which included Claude Debussy. Philipp often championed new music throughout his long life, and would frequently edit the works of contemporary composers, such as Sergei Prokofiev and Maurice Ravel. He was close friends with many of the leading pianists and composers of his day, including Leopold Godowsky, Ferruccio Busoni, Josef Hofmann, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Alfred Cortot, Lazare-Lévy, Emile-Robert Blanchet, Béla Bartók, Nadia Boulanger, Jules Massenet, Cécile Chaminade, Gabriel Fauré and Charles-Marie Widor. Philipp taught piano to Igor Stravinsky and his son Soulima, and Stravinsky practiced the exercises from the Complete School of Technique almost daily. Contemporary commentators have noted that influence of these exercises on Stravinsky's compositions is clear. Pianist Rudolf Serkin said that not having studied with Philipp was one of the regrets of his life. Later, he knew several of Philipp's students in Vienna, and said 'all of them were brilliant.' The University of Louisville Isidor Philipp Archive is held at the Dwight Anderson Music Library in Louisville, Kentucky.