Piano Forum

Topic: Help me decide what to buy  (Read 1386 times)

Offline amanfang

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 841
Help me decide what to buy
on: May 23, 2008, 02:23:00 AM
I have a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble.  I'm debating between a book and a recording.  The book is Fink's book on Piano Technique, and the recording is the Bortkiewicz re-release of Stephen Coomb's performances of the piano works (vol. 1).  I'm leaning towards the recording, because I might like to explore some of Bortkiewicz's music this summer, although I have wanted the Fink book for a while, and I would have the time to read it this summer.  Unfortunately, I cannot get both, unless someone wants to donate through paypal.   ;D

Anyway want to chime in with an opinion on which I should get?
When you earnestly believe you can compensate for a lack of skill by doubling your efforts, there's no end to what you can't do.

Offline quantum

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 6249
Re: Help me decide what to buy
Reply #1 on: May 23, 2008, 01:31:04 PM
Try to see if you can "preview" the recording online or through a library or a friend.

I'm leaning towards the book.
Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach

Offline Essyne

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 608
Re: Help me decide what to buy
Reply #2 on: May 23, 2008, 02:13:31 PM
omg - lol - I too have a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Best of luck  :P.

Book as well, but then again, I'm a nerd  ::).
"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."
                                                 - Chinese Proverb -

Offline rachfan

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 3026
Re: Help me decide what to buy
Reply #3 on: May 23, 2008, 11:19:35 PM
Hi amanfang,

I own both the Coombs recording and Fink's book.  Get the CD!  You'll enjoy it.  While it only covers a small portion of Bortkiewicz's piano ouvre, it is well played and you can get an excellent sampling of his works.  I personally found that Fink's book was one of more abstruse pedagogy books (I own a lot of them) that I had ever encountered.  It might serve well as a textbook for a college piano course taught by Fink.  But as a standalone book to be read at home, I found it somewhat lacking. 
Interpreting music means exploring the promise of the potential of possibilities.
For more information about this topic, click search below!

Piano Street Magazine:
Take Your Seat! Trifonov Plays Brahms in Berlin

“He has everything and more – tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that,” as Martha Argerich once said of Daniil Trifonov. To celebrate the end of the year, the star pianist performs Johannes Brahms’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko on December 31. Piano Street’s members are invited to watch the livestream. Read more
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert