Books on early 20th century (piano) music?

[fnork]

I'm looking for books on the topic of piano music from the late 19th century and onwards, mainly up until mid-20th century or so. I read David Burges wonderful "20th century piano music" which covers a wide range of music, but would love to head other suggestions. Any ideas?

[andreslr6]

Would you like a book about the music in general or something a little more specific? (just noticed the (piano) on the thread's tittle , I think the one about Modernism in Russian Piano Music and Berman's book will be the ones that'll get more your attention from the ones I listed here, but take a look at all of them)

I just bought, but haven't started reading, Theodor Adorno's books about Wagner, Mahler and Berg, all printed in one book, I can't find it in English though, but you can get them separately. Adorno is famous for being hard and confusing to read, but a teacher and a lot of people on the internet say that this book is actually very easy, he hadn't started to write all philosophical as he later did. I got it for the Berg, I wanted a biography and Adorno's is one of the most recommended since he knew him and studied with him.

You can also take a look at Phaidon's collection of biographies of 20th Century Composers, I have a couple of them, but I've only finished Ligeti's biography. You can find some of them in Amazon, but here's the complete collection:

https://www.phaidon.com/store/performing-arts-music/20th-century-composers/

Regarding 20th century philosophy, there's books written by the composers themselves, Style and Idea by Schoenberg and Stravinsky's Poetics of Music, also Charles Ives' Essays Before a Sonata (regarding his Concord sonata).

Style and Idea - Schoenberg
https://www.amazon.com/Style-Idea-Selected-Arnold-Schoenberg/dp/0520266072/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357845258&sr=1-1&keywords=style+and+idea

Poetics of Music - Stravinsky
https://www.amazon.com/Poetics-Music-Form-Six-Lessons/dp/1443726915/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357845393&sr=1-1&keywords=stravinsky+poetics+of+music

Essays Before a Sonata - Charles Ives
https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Before-Sonata-Majority-Writings/dp/0393318303/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357845596&sr=1-1&keywords=essays+before+a+sonat

More specific books I know about and have are Peter Deane Roberts' Modernism in Russian Piano Music: Scriabin, Prokofiev and their Russian Contemporaries; and an even more specific I got for personal interest is The Development of Harmony in Scriabin's Works by Peter Sabbagh. (I got two more for Scriabin, if you want to know I'll tell you, but I'll try to fill this with more varied books meanwhile)

Modernism in Russian Piano Music: Scriabin, Prokofiev and their Russian Contemporaries:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253349923/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00

The Development of Harmony in Scriabin's Works:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158112595X/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00

Another specific one is Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas by Boris Berman, I actually expected more about this but it gives you a good general idea regarding Prokofiev's style of playing, but it's basically a "master class" of each sonata with a short bio. I recommend it to you because you're playing Prokofiev's 3rd so, without any doubt, you'll get something from here that you can apply to the concerto. Or, if you want to play or already play one of his sonatas, this is a good point of view/reference.

Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer - Boris Berman
https://www.amazon.com/Prokofievs-Piano-Sonatas-Listener-Performer/dp/0300114907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357846854&sr=1-1&keywords=prokofiev+sonatas+berman

Reading the reviews about Berman's book I found this one, although I know nothing about this one but it has 5 stars rating https://www.amazon.com/Messiaen-Professor-Peter-Hill/dp/0300109075/ref=cm_cr_dp_asin_lnk it's about Messiaen by Peter Hill.

Other ones I just found that look like they'll be useful and interesting about Debussy's music and Ravel, although I don't know how much of their piano music they cover:

Debussy's Late Style (Musical Meaning and Interpretation)
https://www.amazon.com/Debussys-Style-Musical-Meaning-Interpretation/dp/0253352398/ref=pd_sim_b_2

Debussy Studies (Cambridge Composer Studies)
https://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Studies-Cambridge-Composer/dp/0521121612/ref=pd_sim_b_4

The Cambridge Companion to Debussy (Cambridge Companions to Music)
https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-Debussy-Companions-Music/dp/0521654785/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

The Cambridge Companion to Ravel (Cambridge Companions to Music)
https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-Ravel-Companions-Music/dp/0521648564/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
Those are the first ones that came to mind, I'll edit this post If I remember/find more.