The Moscow Conservatory piano school enjoys pride of place among Russia’s musical institutions. Its outstanding graduates have included Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Medtner, Richter, Gilels, Ashkenazy and Pletnev. Yet while their mastery transcends any process of formal teaching, behind these great names lies a teaching process whose workings are little known to the outside world – except in occasional publications such as […]

Alan Walker’s three-volume biography of Franz Liszt, which took him 25 years to complete, has been very influential. Common adjectives attached to the work include “monumental” and “magisterial” and it is said to have “unearthed much new material and provided a strong stimulus for further research”. Walker himself says that when he found, as a BBC producer compiling notes for […]

The piano master classes of Franz Liszt 1884-1886, Diary notes of August Göllerich by August Göllerich Indiana University Press, 1996, ISBN: 0253332230 Göllerich was student, secretary and companion to Liszt during the musician’s last two years (1884-86). The diary contains the dates of the master classes, lists of performers and the works they performed, and some general thoughts and reflections […]

Famous Pianists and Their Technique has been a standard in the field since its first publication in 1974. This widely used and acclaimed history of piano technical thought includes insights into the techniques of masters such as C.P. E. Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Clementi, Czerny, Debussy, Godowsky, Horowitz, Levinskaya, Leschetizky, the Lhevinnes, Liszt, Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel, Rubinstein, and Schubert, […]

Keyboard Interpretation from the 14th to the 19th Century by Howard Ferguson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 (1975). 215 pp. This inspiring standard work is an introduction to the interpretation of keyboard music from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. Dr Ferguson provides information about the instruments themselves, and discusses this vast, fascinating, and ever-changing subject under the headings; […]

Alfred Brendel: The Complete Vox, Turnabout, and Vanguard Solo Recordings, 1958-1970 Alfred Brendel, who during his six decades of performances, mastered the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert, has now decided to explore other passions in life such as literature and painting. He will give his last concert on December 18, 2008, in Vienna. Brendel will be 77 in […]