Customer Reviews

The Great Pianists: From Mozart to the Present

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This is one of those rare books that educates you on a subject and yet is highly entertaining at the same time. The author was a highly respected music critic for the New York Times for many years and was in fact the first music critic ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. He knows his subject inside out and is a wealth of information. In this book he presents the story of the piano, from Bach to the present day, and he does it by describing and discussing the personalities of the many pianists who contributed to the history of the instrument.

It is a wonderful book, full of memorable descriptions, amusing anecdotes and telling insights. Mr. Schonberg writes with a great deal of humour and a dose of healthy scepticism as to some of the more abstruse utterings of the piano community. He brings to light not only Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninoff, but also all the lesser known figures active at the time as well as the great pianists of the 20th century. It is fascinating. You'll learn all about Thalberg (remembered now only for losing a piano "duel" with Liszt) but who must have been a tremendous musician, you'll read about Leopold de Meyer, who wasn't averse to playing the keyboard with his knee or elbow. You'll laugh at the antics of de Pachmann, learn how Beethoven played his own sonatas, be touched by the life story of Josef Hoffmann.

Above all, this book will open your mind about the piano and pianism. Today everyone concentrates on a handful of composers and pianists, a bit like looking only at a fragment of a painting. Mr. Schonberg brings the whole canvas to light in a clear, fluent, refreshing and readable way and does not confuse the reader with esoteric mumbo-jumbo. This is an accessible book, readable by lay person and musician alike.

The same author has also written a number of other books which I highly recommend, especially Lives of the Great Composers and Horowitz, His Life and Music.

Mr. Schonberg has passed away this week. He will be missed, but he will live on for us through his wonderful glorification of pianism and its history. I originally reviewed this book last December, but with his passing I felt compelled to revisit it.

As a follower of the piano scene for many years, I must say that this book is THE one that you need to have. Its approach and tone reflect a glorification, awe, and love of pianism and its history. Some have alleged that the facts aren't always quite right, and for sure questionable opinions are sometimes presented as though they were clear fact; but the thrust and the narrative are so great that it hardly matters. Some reviews on this site complain that certain subjects should have been given more space; but, INSTEAD OF WHAT?? There's no wasted space in this book, either the original version or the update. If the reviewers mean that the book should have been LONGER, well, I would love it to have been longer, and I bet that Mr. Schonberg would have been glad to oblige.

Much of the book consists of the author's commentary on recordings by pianists of yesteryear. I always had the idea that his initial inspiration for the book may have been his love of listening to old recordings and the wish to share his impressions of them. In my first Amazon review of this book, I wondered whether anybody knows if this is true. Secretly I hoped that Mr. Schonberg himself might see that, and give us the answer. Well, the time for that is past. Anyway, wouldn't we ALL love to have spent a few months (or years) just listening to those old 78's?

Ruht wohl, Mr. Schonberg.

This book, by Harold Schonberg, is an endless description of the pianists who made the piano what it is today. It's humurous, factual, entertaining and most of all informative to maximum level that we laymen can cope with. Well, done. I will certainly read other Schonberg books - in between practicing my dim7 scales of course.

This is one of the most amusing, entertaining, yet historically accurate books I have read. From Mozart's opinions of other pianists to Debussy's ideas of pedalling to Percy Grainger's thoughts on flappers and the feminist movement, this book is as alive as the great story it tells-the story of the piano and the influence it is had on every society that has known it. Written by a former New York Times music editor, this book is an essential addition to the bookshelf of any music maker or lover

This an extraordinary and best documented compilation of five generations of pianists. From Hans von Bullow to Ivo Pogorelich . Since the book is from 1990 Schoenberg makes an exhaustive , passionate and reflexive analysis of the greatest virtuous of the keyboard . Schonberg differs from the ornaments of the technical language and goes to the heart of the music .
Even if there are points of disagreement respect to several considerations , this work is recommended for its informative richness.
The only little default - to my mind - might be well in the little data about some renowned European and even American pianists who had less prominence in America but equally deserve a special place in this singular book.
Some examples are : Yves Nat , Samson Francois , Ivan Moravec , John Lill , Leonard Hokanson , Clifford Curzon , Myra Hess , Vlado Perlemuter , Paul Badura Skoda , Annie Fisher, Selma Kramer, Walter Gieseking, Joaquin Azzucaro , Andrei Gavrilov , Maria Yudina , Tatiana Nikolayeva , Bianca Musulin, Edith Farnadi , Horacio Gutiérrez, Ely Ney , Jean Marie Darre, Gabriel Tachino , Solomon , Dino Ciani , Jorg Demus, Friedrich Gulda, Michael Ponti , Mikjail Rudy and Vladimir Sofronitzky among the most representatives .

I have read this book many times since I was first introduced to it in 1984. The book is about classical pianists, their styles and piccadelloes intermingled with the author's opinions. The writing is great. Yes, as some reviewers have opined, certain facets of the art have been treated too briefly. But one cannot expect an academic tome in a book directed to the general public. I found the book very educational and entertaining. If you have had no classical music training, such as myself, you will learn quite a bit from the book. If you are a classical pianist this book will whet your appetite to plunge further into your love of music. A great addition to your library.

The most fascinating book I have so far read on this topic. Amusing, accurate, solid, and objectively written, full of humour and anecdotes that make its reading real fun. A turn-pager that one can read at any time and regardless of the page. A must for piano lovers. I look forward to reading other books from the same author.

There is absolutely nothing else on the market which can compare to this book. The definitive "encyclopedia" of the piano, composers for the piano, and concert pianists. The author goes into great depth about currently unknown and obscure pianists particularly of the 19th century. The "salon-parlour" music of this period is now experiencing a tremendous revival I am sure at least partly due to this book. He also provides indispensable knowledge about who taught whom - so much so, a geneology tree could easily be made. I have read it at least 20 times through the years, and the book never ceases to amaze me. The tour de force among ALL music books!

Mr. Schonberg knows how to put the reader at ease when writing about most any pianist. You feel comfortable with those great titans of pianism of years past, as if they were your own teachers. He paints vivid, honest pictures of each pianist, going into detail about how they played, their own peculiar strengths and weaknesses, about how they contributed to the overall history of piano-playing. Almost ALL the major and minor pianists of the past are described or at least mentioned. Also included are wonderful anecdotes giving insight into the personalities of the pianists involved. I had to laugh aloud when I read Chopin's disagreement over how rubato's should be played when arguing with fellow pianist Meyerbeer. The latter insisted that Chopin's playing of mazurkas sounds like 2/4 time, when Chopin was vehemently insisting that it was being played in 3/4 time (vehemence = screaming).

The only problems with the book is that Schonberg tends to stick to terms that become a little too commonplace throughout the book. He constantly refers to the "first modern pianist," "romantic," "ahead of his time," etc. He uses those terms so frequently that I forget which pianists were classicists, which were romantics, and which modernists. Also, the book is a little dated, the last publication being 1986.

However, if you're even MILDLY interested in the great pianists of the past please buy this interesting, thoroughly fact-packed book.

It is a thrill to read different chapters in this book. The author writes in simple, but differentiating jounalistic language that is enlieghtening to both musicians and laymen alike. His use of vocabulary is wide but never showy. A good analysis of the distinct characteristics of each pianist, not just complements but also weaknesses. He gets a perfect score for both contents and writing style. Some chapters are better written than others. For instance, his chapter on Paderewski and Liszt are especially interesting (there must be other good ones but I have not finished reading the whole thing). His chapter on Chopin is not as good as it could be. My only regret is that the book lacks account on contemporary pianists. Some of the contemporary pianists are viewed in a cursory manner (if at all) only towards the end of the book. For instance, except Pollini, he never wrote more than one (or two) paragraph on any of the other Chopin competition winners. Reading other books makes my brain tired, but reading this book makes my brain more relaxed.