Good books to improve finger techniques?

[cosmicity]

Hi all, I'm a classical pianist by training. I attained ABRSM Grade 8 in 2004 and after a period of great inactivity, gave Diploma a half-assed attempt in 2007 - needless to say I failed. I have abandoned classical piano for approximately 4 years now (I have played mainly pop and, dare I say, jazz?) but am most recently looking to get back into it. I've realised of late that classical music is, for lack of a better word, awesome, and feel rather miserable for letting the technique I've acquired go to waste. Over the period of time when I wasn't playing classical music, the decline in my finger technique was very palpable.

Are there any books which anyone could recommend to me to get my techniques up to speed (and subsequently improve) again? Specifically, I am attempting to play Liszt's Liebestraume no.3 (Love Dreams) first, and if there're any books recommended which target the faculties required to play the song adeptly I will be most grateful.

Thanks!

[scherzo123]

I love Liebestraum No.3! I played it last year, it's really beautiful and fun. I don't know any books, but I guess Chopin's Etudes and Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier will help.

[49410enrique]

Josef Pischna - Sixty Progressive Studies

[pytheamateur]

This summer, I had some very valuable coaching with a conseravtory teacher.  What I got from her is that one should not lose sight of the fact that piano technique is much more about what you do with your fingers.  Equally important, if not more so, are correct wrist and arm movements.  In her opinion, many of the famous exercises dwell on the fingers without giving due consideration to your arms and wrists.

One popular approach to train your fingers, which still has its advocates today, is to do exercises by playing loud with fingers raised high.  She is vehemently against such an approach; quite apart from their being counter-productive, such exercises are almost a guarantee for injuries.

[black_keys]

you should try some simple exercises like Hanon , and try to re-learn pieces that you played before and that depends musicality not mechanical technique (Liebestraum depends musicality more that technique).

[japzz]

check out "THE GOLDEN FINGERS TECHNIQUE 
The art of Passagework"
by JEROEN RIEMSDIJK
could be interesting for you

[faulty_damper]

None.  Books are a waste of money, effort, and you'll end up learning inappropriate or ineffective techniques that waste energy, not save it.

E.g.
Seymour Fink - Mastering Piano Technique
Gyorgy Sandor - On Piano Playing
Gieseking & Leimer - Piano Technique

While all of these books I've used in the past, I've found far better (easier) ways to play than what they describe.  These are famous names in piano history, mind you, but the techniques they describe are, imo, outdated.  Anyone who uses them won't succeed and will be forced to practice inordinate amounts of time just to force the techniques to work.

Not all of them are ineffective, however, but anyone who spends any time investigating the best movements will figure it out by themselves.  But overall, they're still a waste of money.

[indianajo]

Here in the midwest for exercises we use Edna May Berman books published by Belwin.  A local college professor famous for performng on statewide TV was photographed in childhood at her piano in front of her Berman book.  I've never seen a "Hanon" book anywhere for sale or in a studio.  When you go through old piano benches at the charity resale shop you sometimes see John W. Schaum Fingerpower exercises which look okay but I didn't use them.
When you graduate from EMB, my teacher moved me on to Czerny etudes book one.  Not book two, and having bought book two at a sale, I see why.  
And lifting fingers high and slamming them down sounds like the stupidest practice I ever heard of.  Really, some of the physical movements of piano need to be shown to you personally, and critiqued personally.  One doesn't need a lesson a week anymore, but one does need a few lessons from a professional to learn the posture, wrist and arm techniques correctly.