Maria Callas The Woman behind the Legend
September 15, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
Maria Callas The Woman behind the Legend
Legendary soprano Maria Callas, whose singing was as sensational as her life, is the subject of this biography by author and columnist Huffington. Huffington tells of Callas’ transformation from a shy, chubby girl into one of the greatest opera singers of
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars A Legendary, Operatic Life!
Maria Callas~~ she gave everything for her art, and then, everything
for love. This fascinating, thoroughly researched biography feels like
a novel, it is riveting, and beautifully written.
You hear her voice and fall in love with it, you see her face in photos
and you are captivated. When you read her story you will begin to understand how much she gave to us, with such great love and sacrifice,
for her beautiful art.
She was a powerful spirit who lived every moment to the fullest.
A fabulous book by Arianna Huffington! Grazie Mille!
3 Stars Not a New Book
Isn’t this the same bio written several decades ago under Huffington’s maiden name? Has this been expanded?
Although that book had many interesting facts and a lot of rehashing of the same old same old story of Callas, the view of the woman and the career were from a feminists’s point of view. I’m not criticizing that at all. Certainly Callas totally screwed up her career and life due to Onasis and I believe it is widely known and understood that the only thing Callas could really do in life was music. Had she been truly self-actualized, she would have lived much longer and had a longer career. Her singing career was essentially over by 41. Everything that followed except for the Juilliard Master Classes was grasping for straws.
If this is the same book, I’m not putting it down and some of the insights are interesting but my god, how many biographies must we have on one single musician?
5 Stars To Err is Human…to Forgive, La Divina…
Don’t you think it’d be GREAT, if Amazon listed the book’s true author as Arianna Stassinopoulos instead of Arianna Huffington? I mean, really. Oy.
4 Stars Good beginning and ending - boring in the middle
The book is very good, but in some parts can be quite dull if you are not an Opera fan or musician. The beginning up to when she becomes famous is exciting, and the end as she is no longer quite so famous, is interesting. But the middle is redundant. Arianna goes through detail after detail of each and every performance. That to me is not exciting to read. But because I was curious about the whole Onassis/Kennedy/Callas triangle, I waited. It is important though to read everything to understand her personality. This woman was a wonderful person and a great legend, but she definitely suffered I would suspect from Histrionic Personality Disorder. Onassis is definitely a complete dick, not that this is a surprise, he reminded me a lot of Diego Rivera when it came to women as his possessions. They might have been friends had they known each other - although I suspect thier politics were different. I also purchased a CD to hear Maria sing and often played it while reading, quite a beautiful experience. I was not an Opera fan prior to buying this book. I only bought it after seeing the movie from Netflix - Callas Forever - a Historical Fiction. Curiosity got the best of me and now I am a fan - of Maria.
5 Stars Excellent biography. Read it when it first “came out!”
The number one recall I have about this book still haunts me to this day… her abortion. Onasis giving her the choice, him or the child.
Haunting. Horrible.
Above all, this book was a major “undertaking” for the author which she executed superbly! What a story! What a book!
Complete Works for Solo Piano Alfreds Masterwork Editions
September 13, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
Complete Works for Solo Piano Alfreds Masterwork Editions
Editor Maurice Hinson has compiled this outstanding collection of George Gershwin’s complete works for solo piano. Includes performance notes and helpful editorial pedal and fingering suggestions to aid in achieving a stylistic performance. Titles: Clap Yo Hands
* Do-Do-Do
* Do It Again
* Fascinating Rhythm
* I Got Rhythm
* Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise
* Jasbo Brown Blues
* Liza (All the Cloudsll Roll Away)
* The Man I Love
* Merry Andrew
* My One and Only
* Nobody but You
* Oh, Lady Be Good
* Prelude I
* Prelude II (Blue Lullaby)
* Prelude III (Spanish Prelude)
* Prelude (Novelette in Fourths)
* Prelude (Rubato)
* Prelude (Melody No. 17)
* Prelude (Fragment)
* Promenade
* Rhapsody in Blue (for Solo Piano)
* Rialto Ripples
* Somebody Loves Me
* Strike Up the Band
* Swanee
* Sweet and Low Down
* Swiss Miss
* S Wonderful
* That Certain Feeling
* Three-Quarter Blues
* Two Waltzes in C
* Who Cares? (So Long As You Care for Me).
I Never Walked Alone The Autobiography of an American Singer
September 12, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
I Never Walked Alone The Autobiography of an American Singer
Soprano Shirley Verrett rocketed to stardom (as a mezzo-soprano) in the early 1960s as one of the first African-Americans to break the color barrier in the recital hall and opera house. Verrett’s early operatic triumphs came in Europe, but she established herself at the Metropolitan Opera in 1973 when she sang the roles of both Cassandra and Dido in Berlioz’s five-hour-long Les Troyans and then followed that up by costarring with Beverly Sills in Sills’s belated Met debut in Rossini’s L’Assedio di Corinto (The Siege of Corinth). During her long career, Verrett’s repertoire ranged from the vengeful gypsy Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore to the druid priestess in Bellini’s Norma. She avoided most of the German operatic roles, although conductors tried to tempt her to sing Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Verrett had a reputation for being a demanding artist, and in these memoirs she admits errors in judgment that contributed to well-publicized “feuds” with Marilyn Horne and fellow African-American Grace Bumbry. She recounts her health problems and sometimes difficult personal life with a forthrightness that perhaps stems from her Seventh Day Adventist upbringing. Opera lovers will enjoy Verrett’s insights into the characters she played as well as her thoughts on singing; anyone looking for gossip about her fellow singers, however, will need to look elsewhere. 33 b&w photos
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars An inspiring & revealing look at a Diva of strength & class
“[My husband] Lou [Lo Monaco] and I invited Leontyne Price over for dinner at our apartment in New York City one evening [in 1965], before our upcoming engagement in La Scala. The other soloists were Leontyne; a young and upcoming tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, and bass Nicolai Ghiaurov…When we arrived in Italy, we found a whole ‘can of worms’…When I look back on it, I must have made a terrible impression on Maestro [Herbert] von Karajan…but I felt I had good cause…”
“Performing contemporary music was my next challenge…starting with OEDIPUS REX…The maestro [Igor Stravinsky] was very cordial at our first meeting and also liked what I did musically…In fact, he called me his ‘ideal Jocasta,’ a real compliment coming from a great living composer…
“I recalled Stravinsky’s comment[s]…he told me ‘All of those notations that I put in the score are for idiots…You’re [singing Jocasta] with your soul, and because you are musical…let your mind, body and senses tell you the way the music is supposed to go…”
“The costume designer of the SAMSON AND DELILAH production wanted to explore the ’sensuality’ of Delilah…the costumer wanted me in a sheer, see-through body stocking…I also wore two diamond shaped silver breast plates with nipples in the center of each plate. And that wasn’t the worst of it…”
“I gave up organized religion, although my spiritual beliefs remained rooted in the teachings of my parents…I remain a spiritual person…I still pray every day, sometimes four or five times a day…I never leave the house without a prayer. Never.”
Shirley Verrett
I NEVER WALKED ALONE
From “Turning Points,”
“An Actor’s Life,” and
“Transfigurations” respectively
This is the ultimate biography for someone who has little to no interest in opera. Masterfully written, candid, informative and exciting, it reads like a well crafted novel, music history lesson and self-help book all rolled into one. When people look to female heroes in this “post-feminist” world of ours, we somehow are trained to not look at the divas of this fascinating world: Leontyne Price; Maria Callas; Joan Sutherland; Freni; Tebaldi; and so on. This scratches the surface as to what makes Shirley Verrett’s autobiography so powerful, so enjoyable, and so important. When a woman of such amazing integrity–musical and life-wise–and such extraordinary gifts can reveal the aspects of her personality that could make her the enemy of many people (or at least get on the nerves of great Divas like Grace Bumbry) before she transforms her way out of them, you have the makings of a great life, and a great story about a great life.
I highly reccommend this magnificent autobiography and suggest you pick a up a few of her recordings as well.
5 Stars In Her Own Words: The Life Of An American Opera Singer
Shirley Verrett has written a profound, candid autobiography of her life and career as opera singer. Many singers write their own autobiographies and memoirs, among them include Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavoratti, Beverly Sills, Marilyn Horne and Joan Sutherland. Renee Fleming has also recently released her autobiography. Each singer provides us with an in-depth look at the elements that compose the opera business- from rehearsals, to facing reviews by critics, fandom, scandals, rumors, rivalries, recording sessions, the ups and downs of their careers and their personal lives. In the case of Shirley Verrett, we are treated to an uplifting and inspiring account of her life, and struggles. She’s passionate, conversational, down-to-earth and very humble. I could never see her as the stereotypical diva raging and giving orders. Verrett was a classy lady, with artistic integrity, work ethics, morals and a lot of heart. From the first page to the last, we are in for a great ride and she lavishes the book with candid details and her inner thoughts on EVERYTHING. She opens up to us and we experience her life right along with her.
Shirley Verrett was raised as a Seventh-Day-Adventist, a strict and religious Christian denomination which is very active in America. As such, she was raised with the idea that a career in opera, and for that matter any public career, was sinful and shallow. Though perhaps Verrett had issues with her parents, she seems to have reconciled and even made them proud, for indeed she broke barriers in the opera scene. Opera is not rock and roll. It’s the highest of all the arts, since it combines music, drama, art and poetry all in one. During the early 60’s, it was extremely hard for a black woman to get into opera. Nowadays, it’s a field they are experts in- we have seen the success of Jessie Norman, Kathleen Battle and Denyce Graves. But in a time of racial segregation and the desperate struggles of the Civil Rights Movement, it was difficult for a black woman to make it as an opera singer, and moreover, make it to the top as a leading soprano. Verrett tells us about these times. Her idol was contralto Marian Anderson, the first black woman to break the barrier, and tells us of how she met her in person and received great advice. Leontyne Price was on the rise as a dramatiac soprano and so was Grace Bumbry, who like Verrett, started off as a mezzo-soprano. Like Bumbry, Verrett did not want to remain constricted to the mezzo-soprano repertoire, which is actually quite limited and harldy the “star” role in any opera- (Azucena in Verdi’s Trovatore, Ulrica in Un Ballo, Cherubino in Mozart’s Nozze Di Figaro, Amneris in Verdi’s Aida, Princess Eboli in Don Carlo and of course, the inevitable Carmen). Verrett provides us with anecdotes about performing these roles.
These roles Shirley Verrett mastered well, but singing the villain, or the vamp was not something she wanted to stick to. Other mezzo-sopranos, like Marilyn Horne (whom she talks about in her book, clarifying any rumors concering their clash of temperaments) got famous for using tricks to remain mezzos but still be a star- i.e. sticking to the Rossini heroines (most prominently in Semiramide but also L’Assedio Di Corinto, La Cenerentola and many other mezzo-coloratura roles. Dame Janet Baker used her mezzo voice to effectively convey religiosity and grace, while today’s Cecilia Bartoli has made the mezzo voice a new form of dramatic soprano by coloring the voice with dizzying coloratura and highs as well as low notes. After making it to the top as a mezzo-soprano, it was time to move on. Like her peer, Grace Bumbry (with whom she was never really a rival, simply a rumor circulated by the media) she began training for the repertoire of dramatic soprano. Now, at last, she was ready to take on the same roles as her other idol, Maria Callas. Though Leontyne Price had already mastered the roles of Aida, Tosca, Leonora in Trovatore and Forza Del Destino, etc, Verrett was ready to hold her own.
Indeed, her stamina and committment served her well. A hard-working and talented artist, she nailed the soprano roles of Bellini’s Norma (in a much acclaimed San Francisco Opera performance in 1978 which is also under a live recording) and Tosca which unfortunately was never captured on recording or video/film. As Norma she is passionate, intense, majestic and appropriately dramatic. She tells us of visits to Maria Callas’ Paris apartment she inhabited in the late 70’s shortly before her highly publicized death. Callas adviced her and Montserrat Caballe not to overdo Norma. Verrett took the advice to heart and was harks back to Callas in her performance, but with a lot more fluidity and better diction to the text. Caballe would do Norma much more than Verrett ever did. As Tosca, she is equally as passionate and intense. I personally dislike that the Italian press in Milan dubbed her “La Negra Callas” when she performed in La Scala, as if color was something people just had to point out. Verrett would go on to master the role of Aida and the heroine in Dialogue De Carmelites. She sang at least 3 times with Beverly Sills, with whom she had a great friendship (as the Lady Jane Seymour in the recording of Anna Bolena, as Adalgisa opposite Sill’s Norma and as Neocle in Sill’s Met debut in L’Assedio Di Corinto. She worked with the great Leyla Gencer, an underrated but outstanding dramatic diva (as Queen Elizabeth I in Maria Stuarda) and also with Caballe in Lucrezia Borgia. She sounded rather good opposite Placido Domingo in operas as Samson And Delilah and L’Africaine. Her last great role was as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. Retired, she looks back at her impressive career. She now coaches voice, is a great doner to charitable causes and a spokesperson for opera. This was a truly great book and I loved reading about her experience, which proved how persistence and integrity are eventually rewarded. My favorite moment- her parents, previously rejecting the “material world” and opera too, finally come to see their daughter in a performance of Carmen.
4 Stars La Nera Callas
Having read biographies of Sutherland and Caballe, I was happy to add Shirley Verrett’s to the collection. Unlike some other opera memoirs, this is a very quick read. Verrett is not the kind to mince words, nor dramatize a situation. Sure, there were some details about certain stagings and colleagues that I would have liked to have learned more about, but the brevity of the writing allows you to read the entire book in just a couple of sittings.
Of all the stories she tells about relationships with other singers, most interesting of all is her “rivalry” with Grace Bumbry. Verrett hits it on the mark when she compares the much-hyped rivalry as being the equivalent of two black racehorses. It is an apt analogy, even if Verrett undermines the parallels between her career vis-a-vis Bumbry’s. We’re not just talking about two black opera singers. We are talking about two mezzos who often switched fachs, were as comfortable singing bel canto as they were singing Verdi, and whose signature roles overlapped (Eboli, Amneris, etc.) So, by default, controversy was bound to happen. In the end, they became friends, but the story of the rivalry is very compelling.
There are a couple of things that I don’t like about this memoir. First, Verrett (and/or Mr. Brooks) has a bad habit of repeating information that you just read about a page or two earlier. The most blatant example is how she describes the increasing difficulty to pack opera houses. She mentions that even Joan Sutherland had trouble filling a house to capacity. Then, a couple of chapters later, she mentions that even Joan Sutherland had trouble filling a house to capacity(!)
Speaking of Sutherland, she also slights her in a paragraph where she gives her opinions of how critical acting is to a role, especially Norma. Verrett talks about how one critic faulted her diction when she sand Norma in San Fransisco. Verrett opines that the critic must have “another” soprano in mind that he preferred, which we understand is Sutherland, although Shirley never mentions her by name. Shirley declares that diction was this soprano’s great weakness, and dismisses her acting ability by saying she acted “from the neck up”. This is a valid point to make, but I am a Sutherlandphile, and feel that the Sutherland temperment was often underestimated.
All in all, this is a wonderful autobiography, of an artist hailed by the Italians as “La Nera Callas”. She is very frank about the opportunities she let go by, including an exclusive contract with RCA. Funny how so many of the opera recordings we treasure were almost cast differently; if Verrett hadn’t walked out on her contract, she would have recorded Preziosilla and Amneris opposite Leontyne Price, instead of Cossotto and Bumbry.
5 Stars An Exercise in Honesty
You no doubt know the basics of what the book is about and you’ve read that Ms. Verrett is utterly honest and candid in every sentence of the book.
What this means to me — this is not only a book that is nearly impossible to put down (if you’re interested in operatic performance and the personalities therein), it is also a book that lingers in the mind. Also, I can’t remember a book that has generated so much conversation among friends. If you’re of a certain age, this book will call up memories of gossip and legends that were hot topics in the 70’s and 80’s and will give you new insights on the truth behind them.
I will enjoy keeping this book on my shelf to refer back to as we talk about our memories for a long time.
4 Stars NOW WHAT WE NEED ARE MORE OF HER RECORDINGS!
Shirley Verrett, now 70 and teaching voice at U Michigan, had one of the most beautiful and best trained mezzo voices I’ve ever heard. And she was able to sing many soprano roles as well. Her book is a delight. It contains Ms. Verrett’s frank remarks about her career, her fellow singers, and those involved in the production side of great music. Her views on the way many productions of CARMEN mistakenly focus the audience’s attention on Don Jos
Beethoven Master Musicians
September 10, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
His music was a period unto itself, for Beethoven built on the music of preceding eras and created his own styles. New tonal relationships between sections of a piece, formal innovations, rhythmic exploration, and challenging complexities are the hallmarks that set him apart from his contemporaries (Haydn, Rossini, and Salieri) and far beyond his predecessors (Bach, Handel, and Mozart). He placed his divine art above all else, but he was practical, composing on commissions and for publication to support himself and, after his brother Carl’s death, his nephew Karl. His humanism and the need for interaction with his peers always successfully countered his occasional coarseness and irascibility. Through extensive analysis of Beethoven’s most significant works, Cooper shows how his creativity developed and how events in his life influenced his compositions. This balanced biography that integrates Beethoven’s feelings and motivations with his music belongs wherever there are those who enjoy the great melodies, structures, and harmonic complexities of this unique figure in the world of classical music. Alan Hirsch
Copyright
Schumann Album for the Young Opus 68 for the Piano
September 9, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
Schumann Album for the Young Opus 68 for the Piano
This collection of children’s pieces was inspired by Schumann’s children and family life. This volume, edited by Willard A. Palmer, is based on Schumann’s original manuscript, and subsequent published versions. All editorial suggestions and additions are in light print.
Pianist Kim O’Reilly Newman holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois. She has performed throughout North America and Europe with the Hambro Quartet of Pianos and was an editor and recording pianist for Alfred Publishing. Kim is a brain tumor survivor and now specializes in performing music for the left hand.
Mozart A Life A Penguin Life
September 6, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
In his lifetime, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart didn’t have the best of luck with his patrons. One of them, Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, actually had his chamberlain kick the composer in the ass to signal the end of his employment. Mozart has been luckier, however, with his biographers. In the last 20 years alone, he has been the subject of two fine books: Maynard Solomon’s meticulous study, which slides Mozart’s rather mystifying psyche under the analytic microscope, and Wolfgang Hildesheimer’s more sardonic effort, in which the author seems determined to strip every last bit of romantic varnish from the traditional portrait.
Now Peter Gay joins the party with his own brief life. Weighing in at 177 pages, Mozart will never displace its deep-focus predecessors. But it’s a delightful introduction to the composer, whose entire existence was, as Gay puts it, a “triumph of genius over precociousness.” It’s one thing, after all, to knock ‘em dead at age five–at which point the waist-high Mozart was already a keyboard virtuoso. It’s quite another to keep developing at the same prodigious pace. “A child prodigy is, by its nature, a self-destroying artifact: what seems literally marvelous in a boy will seem merely talented and perfectly natural in a young man. But by 1772, at sixteen, Mozart no longer needed to display himself as a little wizard; he had matured in the sonata and the symphony, the first kind of music he composed, and now showed his gifts in new domains: opera, the oratorio, and the earliest in a string of superb piano concertos.”
Gay gets in all the essentials: Mozart’s mind-blowing maturation, his family life, his weakness for billiards, and (of course) his seriously scatological style as a correspondent. Like Solomon, he takes an Oedipal approach to Wolfgang’s perpetual head-banging with his overbearing father. And like Hildesheimer, he’s at pains to scotch certain cherished myths–the mysterious figure who commissioned the Requiem, for example, turns out to be no otherworldly harbinger of death but a chiseling wannabe who hoped to pass off the finished product as his own work. Perhaps best of all, Gay never goes sublime on us. His portrait is attractively level-headed, and at one point he’s even modest enough to knock his own metaphors for their puerility. Here, surely, the author is being hard on himself. But he’s right about one thing: as far as artistry goes, this former child prodigy does make children of us all. –James Marcus
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Even Mozart Had Some Issues With Dad,Money,Sex,Ego,Just Like Us.
Anyone who has children can relate to this book and the trials of poor Leopold Mozart with his son Wolfgang.Even now as I write this I am experiencing the most vexing problem of trying to impart my wisdom in my children especially my two teenage daughters who, are themselves struggling to gain independance and who inevitably know it all. Truly a most vexing problem for me.I have two more younger ones that have yet to try my patience and go out on their own,worldy and confident in their own abilities to conquer and reign without my help. We shall see what is what in the end won’t we parents?Can you relate to my plight? If so then this is a fairly well written little book on the life of Mozart as good as any I guess.There is much to this little man and his own relationship with his father here and how it shaped his life and his works. Recurrent themes in his operas appear to be the end result of ongoing paternal angst.There are more expansive histories available but the mans life is at times open to interpretation so sometimes less is more.This book gets to the point,presents the stages and influences of his development and incorporates them nicely.It does a good job of dispelling the myths associated with the man and is quite clinically basic in its approach.All you really need to know without the influence of letters to this one and that one back and forth ad nauseum which if presented poorly can make a book longer than it has to be.For the rabid fan of every factotum,no it probably will not do.But for the regular person who wants to know and have a good look at Mozarts life a “just the facts mam” kind of person,you know, just enough current information on the life of Wolfgang A.Mozart to carry you through some martinis and social banter armed with the truth about him with a well respected author and biographer at the helm then this book is the one for you to read.Secretly,I too wanted to believe in the movie ‘Amadeus’ and all of its assertions but it’s all hogwash.Salieri did not kill Mozart or contribute to his death in any way.In fact they were actually cordial friends respectful of each other and not mortal enemies as people tend to believe.The cause of death is another matter which I will let you research on your own.I don’t want to spoil all your fun. This book will start you on your way very well as it reduces the fluff and gets to the pure genius that was Mozart, a man that was probably the last of his kind,one of the greatest composers ever to yet live, ahead of his time yes, yet had day to day problems just like the rest of us and left us way too early because medicine hadn’t caught up yet.The book will fill you in.
4 Stars 17 year old nephew thinks it’s great
I purchased this as a Christmas stocking stuffer for my 17 year old nephew. He’s a musician and composer. He told me that the book is quite fascinating and has made him want to read a full-length biography of Mozart. As an avid reader myself, that tells me that the Penguin edition must be quite good if it encourages the reader to explore the subject further.
3 Stars A Short Biography of a Genius
Peter Gay’s book on Mozart is truly utilitarian, just a short book with all the facts and a few minor clarifications on the folklore surrounding Mozart. The author follows his subject chronologically, with a special emphasis on the familial relationships and Mozart’s unusual correspondence.
Gay suggests that Mozart’s achievements as a child prodigee may have been partly the work of an ambitious father. Gay also puts to rest the enduring rumours that Mozart was poisoned, murdered by a patron, or buried in a pauper’s grave. None of these actually happened, despite what we have seen on the silver screen the last 30 years.
The book is well written, Gay is an entertaining and thorough author, but dont expect anything really new or controversial here.
2 Stars A Two-Dimensional Mozart
Somewhere between Maynard Solomon’s 650-page opus Mozart: A Life and the Mozart write-up on Wikipedia, there is Mozart by Peter Gay.
Mozart’s story should lend itself to the Penguin Lives series of short biographies. It was a remarkable life in spite of its brevity. Mozart gifted the biographer with a voluminous correspondence and Gay makes extensive use of it. If it sometimes seems as if the narrative consists of epistolary excerpts strung together, they do communicate some aspects of Mozart’s character, particularly as regards the increasingly difficult father-son relationship.
Gay also enjoys quoting the vulgar witticisms that frequently occur in the correspondence. Peter Gay is also the author of a biography of Sigmund Freud, so the character analysis was perhaps bound to take a psychoanalytic turn. For example, vis-
Amy Beach Passionate Victorian The Life and Work of an American Composer 1867 1944
September 4, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
Amy Beach Passionate Victorian The Life and Work of an American Composer 1867 1944
The question one inevitably asks when considering the life of composer Amy Beach is this: How much greater might she have been if she’d had the same opportunities given male prodigies such as Mozart or Beethoven? As it was, Beach’s talent was prodigious and widely recognized in her own time. Born in 1867 to a musical family, the young Amy was playing the piano by ear by the time she was four. Had she been a boy, no doubt a brilliant career as a concert pianist would have followed; instead, Amy married a much older man and mostly confined her musical genius to once-yearly concerts and to composing. Beach was prolific and eclectic, writing a Mass, a symphony (her “Gaelic” Symphony was the first work by an American woman composer to be performed by an American orchestra) and chamber music. In later years, after her husband’s death, Beach toured the world as a performer.
In her extensive biography of Amy Beach, Adrienne Fried Block examines both the composer’s life and work. Excerpts from various pieces are included in the book, giving readers an opportunity to study her music. Block does an admirable job of explaining to those less musically knowledgeable just what Beach was attempting to accomplish in each piece. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian is an excellent biography for anyone interested in the life of a remarkable woman; for those who are also interested in music and composition, it’s a real treat.
J S Bach Inventions and Sinfonias Book and CD Alfred CD Edition
September 3, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
J S Bach Inventions and Sinfonias Book and CD Alfred CD Edition
This historically accurate edition contains a wealth of background information on ornamentation, dotted rhythms in the Baroque style, and the recommended tempos and guidelines for performing the works on the piano. Bach’s writing is carefully separated from the editorial suggestions in light gray print. A wealth of footnotes compare the various sources consulted. Students, teachers and professional pianists will find this volume invaluable. The Alfred Masterwork Library CD Editions conveniently combine each exceptional volume with a professionally recorded CD that is sure to inspire artistic performances.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars J. S. Bach: Inventions & Sinfonias (Book & CD)
Music book & CD are exactly as advertised & highly suitable for the piano student with interest or assignment in this music.
3 Stars For the beginner/intermediate only
The preface to this edition contains lots of specific information about ornamentation which is a great learning tool. However with regard to the actual music, I found the editor’s suggested phrasing, dynamics, and fingering to be a large artistic imposition. Though they are in grey ink to distinguish them from Bach’s markings, they still clutter up the page considerably and are hard to ignore. I would prefer to begin learning this music from Bach’s notation and interpret from that. A beginning or intermediate student would very probably enjoy the guidance, as the suggestions are not terrible, just not authentic. Avoid this edition if you want a clear presentation of this music the way Bach prepared it.
The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn
September 1, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn
Joseph Haydn is one of the greatest and most innovative of all composers, yet in some ways he is still curiously misunderstood. This engaging new “Pocket Guide” assesses what Haydn’s music means to us today, and challenges some of the myths that have grown up around the composer. With suggestions for further reading and recommended CD recordings, Richard Wigmore’s crisp and concise guide presents you with all you need to listen to and enjoy Haydn’s music. It explores each of his key works, from his symphonies to his quartets, from his choral works to his sonatas, and invites a new generation of listeners to discover the depth and dazzling ingenuity of this most humane and life-affirming of composers.
Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas
August 31, 2009 by Classical Music · Leave a Comment
Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas
For anyone who plays the piano, Beethoven’s 32 sonatas loom as the mighty peak of the repertoire. Taub, a concert pianist who has played them all, gives a performer’s-eye view of the experience. Taub sets the tone on the first page by declaring that pianists enter into “an implied moral contract” with the composer to understand and respect his intentions. What follows is a close, careful reading of every aspect of performance from fingering to tempo. Like Rosen, Taub does not follow the standard division of the sonatas, opting instead to describe them as “Epitomizing Classical Styles” (Op. 2-49), “Experimentation” (Op. 26-31), “Post-Heiligenstadt, Crossing the Rubicon” (Op. 53-57), “Compression, Homogeneity” (Op. 78-81a), and “Summation, Transcendence” (Op. 90-111). These are thoughtfully construed categories, but Taub is more persuasive when arguing that each sonata is unique, and the most fascinating part of the book for any performer is the division of the sonatas into nine distinctive programs (this reviewer finds the Tempest/Hammerklavier combination especially intriguing). Throughout, Taub is intelligent, informed, exhaustive (74 musical examples grace the text), and genial if sometimes a bit dry. Definitely a performer’s guide (Rosen’s study will probably work better for larger audiences), this is highly recommended for any library serving pianists, amateur or professional, who want to play Beethoven better. Barbara Hoffert, “Library Journal”
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Intelligence and Passion in Playing the Beethoven Sonatas
The Introduction to Tovey’s Edition of the Beethoven Sonatas begins: “The Pianoforte Sonatas of Beethoven must always be among the choicest possessions of all who love music and especially of those who make music their main object and study.” Robert Taub is a performer and scholar — he serves as artist-in-residence at Princeton University who has performed frequently and recorded the cycle of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas. He has written an excellent if difficult book offering the insights of a performer into Beethoven’s great music.
Taub’s book will inevitably be compared with Charles Rosen’s recent study “Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion.” The books share many insights but are written from different perspectives. Rosen’s work is broader and more historical in scope. Taub’s book is the work of a concert pianist and it reflects, in sometimes a personal way, on how he learned the sonatas, how he interprets each of these remarkably individual works, and how he performs them. There is a great deal of detail on the technique of piano playing as applied to each sonata. We learn how Taub chooses his tempo, how he pedals, how he voices and emphasizes the notes in a chord, the decisions he makes in phrasing and in holding his fingers. We learn when and why he slows down and emphasizes a passage and when and why he strives to play a passage brilliantly.It is a work by a pianist which seems to me to be primarily for other pianists. although much that he says will be of interest to music listeners as well.
In learning and performing a complex work of music such as a Beethoven sonata, Taub tells us, a performer makes an implied moral contract with the composer. The contract requires the performer to delve into the music and to internalize it in order to understand what the composer wished to express. The performer effectively promises the composer to bring the music to life so that the audience may understand and be moved by the work — so that the hearer may respond to and carry the music with him or her. For Taub the moral contract between performer and composer requires careful study of the score and — particularly in the case of Beethoven — a study of various editions of a particular work and of Beethoven’s sketches, authographs, musical markings, and letters that cast light on how he conceived the work. The performer works with the composers intentions, for the work in its entirety as well as in part, to try to bring something of the power of the music to life. The music itself is inexhaustable and cannot be encompassed in any single performance or interpretation.
Instead of the traditional three-fold division of Beethoven’s music, Taub offers a five-fold division of the sonatas. (Rosen offers a five-fold division as well but, interestingly it differs from Taub’s) Taub’s division of the sonatas is as follows: a). early classical, including the sonatas from opus 2 through opus 22 as well as the two sonatas of opus 49 (13 works); b). seven “experimental” sonatas, including opus 26 through the three works of opus 31; c) the three “post-Heilgenstadt” sonatas, opus 54, 54, 57; d) the three “compressed” sonatas, opus 78, 79, and 81a; and e) the final “transcendent” sonatas, opus 90, 101. 106, 109, 110, 111.
Following a discussion of general musical principles applicable to all the sonatas, Taub describes how he arranged them for performance of the cycle. This is probably the single most interesting part of the book. Taub decided against playing the sonatas simply by following the opus numbers but tried to arrange them thematically. I learned a great deal about Beethoven’s sonatas simply from Taub’s discussion of how he ordered them and from his discussion of how he chose the works he did for each individual program.
Taub’s discussions of each individual sonata, in his nine programs, constitute the heart of the book. The discussions show, indeed, how Taub has thought of and internalized this music in trying to share it with his public. The discussion is fascinating as well in teaching how a performer works and learns. For those who attempt to play this music, as I do, there is a great deal to be learned from Taub’s love for this music, his patience and his attention to musical detail. As Rosen did in his book, Taub spends a great deal of time in discussing Beethoven’s opus 54 sonata (which lies between the Waldstein and Appassionata sonatas) and which is little performed. But I feel that Taub’s heart is mostly with the final “transcendental” sonatas — opus 90, (which Taub I think properly groups with the last 5 even though this is not usually done) opus 101, opus 106 (the Hammerklavier), 109.110 and 111. There are some interesting details in the book — we learn that Taub spent 8 years working on the Hammerklavier before venturing a public performance — and that Benny Goodman once told Taub after a private performance of the Waldstein sonata that a performer who really wanted to play a work such as the Waldstein had to “make it his own”. Wise advice and the reference to Benny Goodman makes it special.
This is a detailed, pianistic book on some of the greatest music ever composed.
5 Stars For advanced music students and serious-minded pianists
Playing The Beethoven Piano Sonatas by internationally renowned pianist Robert Taub, is compelling literature that analyzes the composition, performance, and emotion of Beethoven’s famous and classic musical masterpieces in depth and detail. Written for advanced music students and serious-minded pianists, Playing The Beethoven Piano Sonatas also offers general advice for an ideal performance, as well as a wealth of “tips, tricks, and techniques” specific to numerous individual sonatas. Playing The Beethoven Piano Sonatas is very highly recommended reading for anyone with a fervent desire to perform Beethoven’s great piano music to the best of their ability.
