The Pedagogical Family Tree.

The article looks into the historical connections of Russian pianists. An example of such historical connections are those of Anna Essipova, one of the most prominent and influential Russian teachers. She was known to emphasize a singing legato sound and two of her noted students were Sergei Tarnowsky and Isabelle Vengerova. Some connections appear unlikely such as those of Karl Heinrich Barth who taught both Artur Rubinstein and Wilhelm Kempff. In the case of Van Cliburn, he was pedagogically only one generation removed from Russia when he triumphed in the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. His teacher Rosina Lhévinne, was a direct exponent of 19th-century Russian piano playing.