A Deep Dive Into The Piano Music Of Samuel Adler
September 20, 2023
If you’ve spent more than half a century involved with the music of a composer, you don’t think the piano world knows enough about, what might you do to increase… READ MORE
Category: Music
The Joy of Piano-Playing
September 11, 2023
We pianists are expected to play three centuries of music on one kind of instrument, epitomized by the modern Steinway—largely unchanged since about 1890. It’s a fantastic tool, but it… READ MORE
The Art of Speaking the Piano
September 5, 2023
Austrian-American pianist and composer Artur Schnabel was reportedly told by his teacher, Theodor Leschetitzky, that he ‘must learn to speak the piano’. When I first heard this story, it surprised me…. READ MORE
Mysteries of Music and Magic
August 30, 2023
Marsilio Ficino had a lot on his mind in the summer of 1489. Imagine him pacing the hallways and gardens of the Villa Careggi, his residential estate near Florence. Marsilio… READ MORE
In The Footsteps of Gérard Grisey
August 21, 2023
At first, The Life and Music of Gérard Grisey: Delirium and Form was a book I wanted to read, not a book I hoped to write. I’ve been fascinated by… READ MORE
Books to look out for in August 2023
August 4, 2023
New for August we have the first in Nat Rubner’s two volume set exploring a pivotal moment in the history of the African continent; the first biography of Gérard Grisey… READ MORE
Tracing Kurt Weill’s Influence on American Music Theater
June 20, 2023
Kurt Weill is well established as one of the 20th century’s most significant workmen in music theater. And yet his far-reaching legacy – the result of a career that stretched… READ MORE
Conversing with Enlightenment Polemicists
April 14, 2023
It occurred to me to wonder what an Enlightenment littérateur might make of this book, which found me buried so often in playful dialogues and epistolary exchanges that it was… READ MORE
The Great Vogue for the Guitar in Western Europe, 1800-1840
March 23, 2023
Q: What was The Great Vogue? CP: Throughout Western Europe, there was a veritable craze for playing the guitar during the first four decades of the nineteenth century; yet astonishingly… READ MORE
The Politics of Music: Gustav Mahler and Friedrich Nietzsche in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
March 13, 2023
Gustav Mahler and Friedrich Nietzsche are two of the most important figures in twentieth century culture, broadly—to say nothing of their impact on their respective fields of music and philosophy…. READ MORE
Exploring The Freest Country In The World