Rachmaninoff: the rumours are true, it's not the size that matters

Performing Rachmaninoff? You might have a problem on your hands!

You know what they say about people with big hands… They probably have acromegaly. At least that is what a paper from the British Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine stipulates about Sergei Rachmaninoff's unusually large paws. Serious medical professionals actually took the time to investigate what the cause of his above-average reach might be. Along the way they ruled out the previously diagnosed rare genetic disease called Marfan syndrome, because “he did not clearly exhibit any of the other clinical characteristics.”

Acromegaly, a disorder where the body doesn't stop creating growth hormone, seems to them a much more likely conclusion, considering Sergei's recurring bouts of depression, and a certain stiffness in his face, which the researchers noticed in his portrait photographs. However, the paper does conclude in true academic uncertainty: “Perhaps he just had big hands.”

Stretching: important for athletes, ill-advised for pianists. It might sound a bit defeatist, but no, it is not a good idea to go beyond your reach. Trying to overstretch your pointers leads to troubles in the long run. Composer Robert Schumann destroyed any chance at a performing career because he fabricated a torturous device out of shoestring and a cigar box. It would bend back one finger and keep it in place, while allowing to exercise the other digits. Weirdly enough, these contraptions weren't that uncommon in 19th-century Europe, with pianist Henri Herz even patenting such a device. One problem, the strain Schumann put on his muscles paralysed the index and middle finger of his right hand. A lesson to never overdo it. Luckily there is a less painful solution at hand.

If it ain't broken, you're allowed to. Since not many professional pianists are genetically blessed with a hand span of a thirteenth, that is approximately 30 centimetres, performers have to go looking for solutions to tackle the at times overwhelmingly bombastic chords in Rachmaninoff's piano concertos. Or do they? Boris Giltburg, performer of honour at the Rachmaninov Festival, listened back to the original recordings by the composer, and found out that even good ole Sergei himself tended to break up the chords into individual notes. “He writes these brooding opening chords for his Piano Concerto No. 2, a tenth wide. I could never play all of these notes at the same time. He definitely could have, but the thing is: he doesn't. I take that as an inspiration and an interpretation that if a chord is too big for comfort, I'm allowed some freedom.”

The rumours are true, it's not the size that matters. What counts is how you use your hands. Yes, the composer's specimens were exceptionally large, but he never made his anomaly a key challenge in his music. Quite the opposite even. “Part of his genius is in the fact that he understands how hands work. How they move, how flexible they are. What I tend to find in his music, is not the disproportionately large stretches, but rather the natural movement of the fingers across the keyboard.” I would say it is safe to assume Giltburg would have deserved an overgrown thumbs-up from the maestro himself for that.

Rachmaninov Festival, 7 & 8/10, 11 & 12/11, Flagey, www.brusselsphilharmonic.be