Full name: The Great Pianists: From Mozart to the Present

Author: Harold C. Schonberg Year: 1963 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Music, Non Fiction, History, Biographies Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780671638375 0671638378

From Mozart's fabulous legato that "flowed like oil" to Beethoven's oceanlike surge, from Clara Schumann's touch "sharp as a pencil sketch" to Rubinstein's volcanic and sensual playing, The Great Pianists brings to life the brilliant, stylish, and sometimes eccentric personalities, methods, and technical peculiarities of history's greatest pianists. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Harold C. Schonberg presents vivid accounts of the artists' performances, styles, and even their personal lives and quirky characteristics-- such as Mozart's intense competition with Clementi, Lizst's magnetic effect on women (when he played, ladies flung their jewels on stage), and Gottschalk's persistent nailbiting, which left the keys covered with blood. Including profiles of Horowitz and Van Cliburn, among others, and chapters detailing the playing and careers of such modern pianists as de Larrocha, Ashkenazy, Gilels, Gould, Brendel, Bolet, Gutierrez, and Watts, The Great Pianists is a comprehensive and fascinating look at legendary performers past and present. Similar books: Piano Notes by Charles Rosen Piano by James Barron Hotel California by Barney Hoskyns Otis Redding by Jonathan Gould Where Dead Voices Gather by Nick Tosches Playing the Piano for Pleasure by Charles Cooke Let it Blurt by Jim DeRogatis Unknown Pleasures by Peter Hook This is Uncool by Garry Mulholland Where Did Our Love Go? by Nelson George The Joy of Music by Leonard Bernstein Saucerful of Secrets by Nicholas Schaffner Indivisible by Four by Arnold Steinhardt Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play by Ben Watson The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman Comfortably Numb by Mark Blake The Beatles by Bob Spitz Everybody Loves Our Town by Mark Yarm Shostakovich by Elizabeth Wilson