Bionic gloves let acclaimed pianist play once again
Renowned pianist Jo茫o Carlos Martins summoned his friends to a S茫o Paulo bar so he could show off the best gift he鈥檇 received in decades: a new pair of bionic gloves that are letting the 79-year-old play with both hands in more than two decades.
Considered one of the great interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach鈥檚 music, the Brazilian classical pianist and conductor retired last March after 24 surgeries trying to stop pains from a degenerative disease and a series of accidents. His limitations had forced him to work mostly as a conductor since the early 2000s. But since the closing days of 2019, friends have been returning to Martins鈥 downtown penthouse to hear him bring Fr茅d茅ric Chopin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his favorite, Bach, back to life at his Petrof piano.
Before the gloves, which were especially developed for him, the pianist could only play songs slowly with his thumbs and, sometimes, his index fingers.
鈥淎fter I lost my tools, my hands, and couldn鈥檛 play the piano, it was if there was a corpse inside my chest,鈥 Martins said.
Martins鈥 health problems date back to 1965. He famously rebounded after every setback 鈥 nerve damage in his arm inflicted during a soccer match in New York, a mugger hitting him over the head with a metal pipe while he toured in Bulgaria, and more. But even friends expected the latest surgery, on his left hand, to mark the end of his days on the piano bench. That might have been his fate, were it not for a designer who believed the pianist鈥檚 retirement had come too early. Ubirat茫 Bizarro Costa created neoprene-covered bionic gloves that bump Martins鈥 fingers upward after they depress the keys, and which are held together by a carbon fiber board.
鈥淚 did the first models based on images of his hands, but those were far from ideal,鈥 Costa said. 鈥淚 approached the maestro at the end of a concert in my city of Sumar茅 in the S茫o Paulo countryside. He quickly noticed they wouldn鈥檛 work, but then he invited me to his house to develop the project.鈥
Costa and Martins spent the subsequent months testing several prototypes. The perfect match came in December and cost only about 500 Brazilians reals (US$125) to build. Now Martins never takes off his new gloves, even when going to bed.
鈥淚 might not recover the speed of the past. I don鈥檛 know what result I will get. I鈥檓 starting over as though I were an 8-year-old learning,鈥 he said, joined by his poodle Sebastian. His dog鈥檚 name, of course, is a tribute to Bach.
The pianist鈥檚 return was first reported by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo. Reporter Ricardo Kotscho said Martins hurried to the bar near his home before Christmas 鈥渓ike a boy who got a new toy.鈥
Martins said he has received more than 100 gadgets in the last 50 years as miraculous solutions to his hand problems. None worked well or long enough.
鈥淏ut these gloves do. I can even tune them accordingly,鈥 he said, showing how he can rearrange the glove鈥檚 internal pads to play at a faster or slower tempo. 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 all sorted. The muscle atrophy plays a role. Sometimes I try to play a speedy one and get depressed because it just doesn鈥檛 happen yet.鈥
The 鈥渆xtender gloves,鈥 as their inventor calls them, gave Martins a goal: Play the piano again at New York鈥檚 Carnegie Hall in October, when he is scheduled to conduct a concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of his first appearance there. Martins is practicing early in the morning and late at night, to the delight of his neighbors, until he can interpret an entire Bach concert perfectly.
鈥淚t could take one, two years. I will keep pushing until that happens,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 won鈥檛 give up.鈥
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