One of the things I love about working with advanced students (my studio is about 2/3 semi pros) is that they keep me in touch with the gnarliest parts of the repertoire. Just today, I’m getting to revisit Beethoven 6, Brahms double, and

…oh no. Popper Nº 29.

Not that I have anything against it, but it’s one of three Popper Höhe Schule examples that I simply haven’t studied. At all! It happens to feature a lot of thirds, something that is just plain hard on a stringed instrument. Oh, and these are in thumb position. Sigh. This is not going to get into my hands over the course of a week. But the purpose of Popper is to install the right software to ready us for the repertoire, and I am excited to really start work on it. After an initial pass through the pages, I went to YouTube to see what the final result should look and sound like. Studying Popper in particular is helped by a visual demonstration, because he always has a few very particular things in mind, and some are not obvious until you’ve spent a week, for instance, playing spiccato when the actual instruction is sautillé (cries in solidarity with all victims of Nº27)

I found this version, played a few years ago by Radu Croitoru, and I am staggered by the efficient, easy left hand he plays this absolute monster étude with! He also plays with what I call an “inside out” bow hand, where there is occasionally the appearance of a tilt towards the pinky finger rather than the more common tilt into the index finger knuckle. My hand is very mobile when I use the bow, and there are occasions when it probably looks similar, but like Alisa Weilerstein, his more or less stays that way. And like Alisa Weilerstein, it really works for him. Just always good to remain open to the variety of ways a hand can look and still be healthy and functional.

I also really love people who play these works with a sense of beauty and enjoyment. David Popper was a teacher, after all, and I describe these studies as love letters to his students. He wrote these for us. To establish a standard primer of techniques and musical ideas cellists need to grasp in order to enjoy (not just survive) difficult music.

If you feel like joining me by studying even a little bit of this devilishly wonderful piece, Albhie and Katie’s site is a great place to start.