The result is a treasury of reminiscences and reflections that are not only remarkably candid and revealing but entertaining and thought-provoking as well. Through the eyes of these inspired musicians, we get an intimate look at the concert scene and the life of the concert pianist, as well as insights into the artists' feelings about their art, their performance anxieties, the music they play, and many other topics. Enhanced with 50 photographs, this book will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in serious music and piano artistry.Pianists interviewed in this volume include Claudio Arrau, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alfred Brendel, John Browning, Alicia de Larrocha, Misha Dichter, Rudolf Firkušný, Glenn Gould, Vladimir Horowitz, Byron Janis, Lili Kraus, Rosalyn Tureck, André Watts, Paul Badura-Skoda, Jorge Bolet, Youri Egorov, Janina Fialkowsha, Leon Fleischer, Emil Gilels, Stephen Hough, Zoltán Kocsis, Garrick Ohlsson, Cécile Ousset, Murray Perahia, and Ivo Pogorelich."The fascinating world behind the glamour of the concert platform comes alive in very fluid and readable style." — Rosalyn TurecK

    The book is a vivid account of their mutual passion for music and the piano. It reflects the struggles and triumphs of Vladimir Horowitz, a flaming genius who was also insecure and

    A uniquely gifted musician, he combined outstanding performing virtuosity with supreme creative powers and remarkable intellectual discipline. More than two centuries after his lifetime, Bach's work continues to set musical standards.The noted Bach scholar Christoph Wolff offers in this book new perspectives on the composer's life and remarkable career. Uncovering important historical evidence, the author demonstrates significant influences on Bach's artistic development and brings fresh insight on his work habits, compositional intent, and the musical traditions that shaped Bach's thought. Wolff reveals a composer devoted to an ambitious and highly individual creative approach, one characterized by constant self-criticism and self-challenge, the absorption of new skills and techniques, and the rethinking of riches from the musical past.Readers will find illuminating analyses of some of Bach's greatest music, including the B Minor Mass, important cantatas, keyboard and chamber compositions, the Musical Offering, and the Art of Fugue. Discussion of how these pieces "work" will be helpful to performers--singers, players, conductors--and to everyone interested in exploring the conceptual and contextual aspects of Bach's music. All readers will find especially interesting those essays in which Wolff elaborates on his celebrated discoveries of previously unknown works: notably the fourteen "Goldberg" canons and a collection of thirty-three chorale preludes.Representing twenty-five years of scholarship, these essays--half of which appear here in English for the first time--have established Christoph Wolff as one of the world's preeminent authorities on J. S. Bach. All students, performers, and lovers of Bach's music will find this an engaging and enlightening book.

    Although the music of this very special genre has long been a part of every serious musician's repertoire, little has been written about it.The original edition of this addressed works that bore the names of dances--a considerable corpus. In this expanded version of their practical and insightful study, Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne apply the same principals to the study of a great number of Bach's works that use identifiable dance rhythms but do not bear dance-specific titles.Part I describes French dance practices in the cities and courts most familiar to Bach. The terminology and analytical tools necessary for discussing dance music of Bach's time are laid out.Part II presents the dance forms that Bach used, annotating all of his named dances. Little and Jenne draw on choreographies, harmony, theorists' writings, and the music of many seventeenth- and eighteenth-centurycomposers in order to arrive at a model for each dance type.In Appendix A all of Bach's named dances are listed in convenient tabular form; included are the BWV number for each piece, the date of composition, the larger work in which it appears, the instrumentation, and the meter.Appendix B supplies the same data for pieces recognizable as dance types but not named as such.More than ever, this book will stimulate both the musical scholar and the performer with a new perspective at the rhythmic workings of Bach's remarkable repertoire of dance-based music.