R.P.: Since how long have you been teaching the piano ?

 

N.P.: I’ve been teaching since more than 25 years... When I started I was still a student, and I understood very soon that it will be my profession. During my childhood I was dreaming about travelling in the world. When I came to France my dream came true. Teaching the piano is as interesting and exciting as travelling : in each pupil  there is a promise of something new never met before. In one word, my pupils represent for me a circle of very different but wonderful beings.

 

R.P.: What’s your pupils’ repertoire ?

 

N.P.: It’s very various and complete, srarting by Bach and Haendel, Scarlatti for the baroque, then- Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven for classics ; the romantics : Schubert, Schumann, List, Chopin, Brahms ; the russians : Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabine, then Shostakovich, Prokofiev. Sometimes they play blues or ragtimes.

 

R.P.: What do you think : out of ten  pupils how many will become professional musicians ?

N.P.: This question is complicated and painful. There were always among my pupils thoses who could become professional musicians : very talented young people and even professional pianists. Many of them won the first prizes for competitions. But to become musician means to accept a very hard work. This situation frightens many potential professionals.

 

R.P.: People say that to become your pupil one has to wait several months. Anyway, is there a possibility to be your pupil ?

 

N.P.: Yes, it,s possible after an interview and a test. I love to work with talented and open people. My timetable is very charged : all the days of the week and even on Saturday. Sometimes I work even on Sunday. Not yet at night, though my neighbours are very understanding !

 

R.P.: Where did you study in Russia and in France ?

N.P.: In Moscow I graduated from Gnessina school,college and Institute. In France I obtained a diploma in psychology of Sorbonne. Being a psychologiste helps me much in my pedagogical work. And I have never stopped perfecting taking part in marster classes in Russia and in France.

 

R.P.: Which is the most difficult piece you have played ?

N.P.: A professionnal musician would not ask this ! You see, the difficulties can be of many different raisons : mainly – in technics and in interpretation, but everything is connected. What can you express without good technics ? And if you don’t have a sensibility with the music, the technics cannot help you. Ihave just played the 32 variations of Beethoven. In this piece the difficulty is in the fact that the mood and the technics change each 2 minutes, so it’s very difficult to join all the parts together. Chopin’s Etudes are very hard to play because the same mouvement can take several pages : it needs very good technics and resistance. Bach’s polophony is very complicated too.

 

R.P.: Can you tell us the most funny story of your life as a musician ?

N.P.:  Ok, it’s the most funny for the moment : but you never know, may be the most funny will hapen in the future. So, it  took place in France. I was a teacher at a music school and at the end of the year there was a concert given by the pupils.As usually Iwas asked to  accompany some instruments without any rehearsal. They gave me notes and I started to play. Normally, I can addapt myself to the others very easily, even if there are some rhythm problems or anything. This time it was really impossible ! Then I realized that they gave me the notes of something else. I stopped. It’s cruel to say, but if I didn’t stop would anybody notice this « mistake » ? I’m not sure.

 

R.P.: Some words about your teaching ?

N.P.: I can tell you what’s the most important for me. I love to start with the very beginners, children and adults, in order to create  the solid technics. But first I test their capacities. Otherwise, there is no sense to torture them, especially children. The adults must know which is their goal and to be ready to find a possibility to provide a regular work and to love what they are doing. It happens to me to help the not – beginners to change their technics because it isn’t possible to express the composer’s’ ideas and feelings and our own emotion without solid technical basics and knowing the piano possibilities. Very often we use only a small part of our natural capacities, because we don’t know how to use them… I can help to resolve this problem.

 

R.P.: After such a long experience of teaching in France you must see the difference between the french and the russian piano schools?

N.P.: Yes, a very significant difference : in Russia  we think first  about expression. The technics and the knowing of the theory ara the »servants » of the music, of the life.  In France I often noticed the opposite : people play the notes and the rhythm, the expression doesn’t count. It’s a pity ! But I don’t want to generalize. I think that the situation is changing little by little.

R.P.: What’s the difference between you and other teachers ?

N.P.: As I already said, I have a very long and rich experience as a teacher : I started still being a student. Besides, i have two higher musical educations and the experience of exchange with the musicians of other countries..

 

R.P.: With whom especially ?

N.P.: I think much about Monique Dechaussées. I have additionally a psychologiste diploma. Knowing  the psychology helps to understand better each person with whom I work and to reveal the real possibilities of every pupil.