Preface
I. In the Beginning [J. S. Bach, C. P. E. Bach:]
II. It Should Flow Like Oil [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:]
III. Thirds, Sixths, and Octaves [Muzio Clementi:]
IV. In Profile and on the Road [Dussek, Cramer, Wölffl, Steibelt:]
V. String-Snapper, Hands on High [Ludwig van Beethoven:]
VI. In the Interim [Czerny, Weber:]
VII. From Ireland to Bohemia [Field, Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles:]
VIII. Romanticism and Its Rules
IX. Tubercular, Romantic, Poetic [Frederic Chopin:]
X. Thunder, Lightning, Mesmerism, Sex [Franz Liszt:]
XI. Old Arpeggio, Other Salonists, and the American Penetration [Thalberg, Herz, de Meyer:]
XII. More Salonists, and the Revolutionary in Octaves [Dreyschock:]
XIII. Two Sensitive Ones [Alkan, Henselt:]
XIV. The First American [Louis Gotschalk:]
XV. The Virtuous [Mendelssohn, Halle, Clara Schumann:]
XVI. Tyrant and Intellectual [Bülow, Goddard:]
XVII. The Children of the Abbe [Tausig, Menter, Adele aus der Ohe, Rive-King, Amy Fay, Sgambatti:]
XVIII. Thunder from the East [Anton Rubinstein:]
XIX. French Neatness, Precision, Elegance [Saint-Säens, Plante, Pugno, Risler:]
XX. The Listztianers and Leschetizkianers Take Over [Leschetizky:]
XXI. An Archangel Come Down to Earth [Ignacy Jan Paderewsky:]
XXII. The Little Giant, and other Liszt-Made Giants [d'Albert, Rosenthal, Sauer, Joseffy, Stavenhagen, Weiss, Friedheim:]
XXIII. Some of the Leschetizky Group [Hambourg, Gabrilowitsch, Moiseiwitsch, Friedman:]
XXIV. The Chopinzee, the Buddha, and Others [de Pachmann, Godowsky, Koczalsky, Grainger:]
XXV. The Ladies [Essipoff, Carreno, Bloomfield-Zeisler:]
XXVI. Composers at the Keyboard [Albeniz, Scriabin, Debussy, Dohnanyi:]
XXVII. Dr. Faust at the Keyboard [Ferruccio Busoni:]
XXVIII. Perfection Plus [Josef Hofmann:]
XXIX. The Puritan [Sergei Rachmaninoff:]
XXX. Some Headliners of the Day [Bauer, Lhevinne, Cortot, Novaes:]
XXXI. New Philosophies, New Styles [Debussy, Prokofieff, Landowska, Tudor:]
XXXII. The Man Who Invented Beethoven [Arthur Schnabel:]
XXXIII. Romanticism Still Burns [Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein:]
XXXIV. Twentieth-Century Schools [Gieseking, Serkin, Arrau, De Larrocha, Renard, Argerich, Barenboim, Lipatti, Lupu, Kocsis, Pogorelich, Bachauer, Michelangeli:]
XXXV. After the Thaw [Gilels, Richter, Ashkenazy, Berman:]
XXXVI. Bach a la Mode [Glenn Gould:]
XXXVII. Two Cult Figures [Brendel, Pollini:]
XXXVIII. Made in America [Kapell, Van Cliburn, Bolet, Wild, Watts, Gutierrez, Perahia:]
Index
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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.
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