The great pianists
From Mozart's fabulous legato that "flowed like oil" to Beethoven's oceanlike surge to Chopin's earsplitting dissonances, from Clara Schumann's touch "sharp as a pencil sketch" to Rubinstein's volcanic and sensual playing to Rachmaninoff's exquisitely shaped phrases, The Great Pianists brings to life the brilliant, stylish, and sometimes eccentric personalilties, methods, and technical peculiarities of history's greatest pianists -- from Mozart to the modern-day masters. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Harold C. Schonberg presents a vivid account of each artist's performances, styles, and even their personal lives and quirky characteristics -- Mozart's intense competition with Clementi; the dandyism of Chopin; Liszt's magnetic effect on women (when he played, ladies flung their jewels on stage); Gottschalk's persistent nailbiting, which left the keys covered with blood; and Landowska's dramatic entrances, her eyes cast to the heavens, in "communion" with Bach. This new edition has been completely revised and updated to include expanded material on Horowitz, Cliburn, and others, and four new chapters detailing the playing and careers of such modern pianists as de Larrocha, Ashkenazy, Gilels, Gould, Brendel, Bolet, Gutierrez, Watts, and many others. - Back cover
Print Book, English, ©1987
Simon & Schuster, New York, ©1987