Books to improve ideas about playing piano

[jaquet]

Hi fellow pianists, I just wanted to create a thread about books which can improve piano technique, intpretation and or expand a students mind on how it is like to be a pianist.
I will note some down which i have read and found quite gripping.
Arthur Rubinstein My younger years-
Heinrich Neuhaus- Art of piano technique
Walter Geiseking- piano technique
Fanny waterman- On piano teaching and performing
Franz Liszt- Life of Chopin
Piero Wess- Music in the western world, a history in documents
Please add some more, because as young pianists i believe there is an awful lot of work outside of studying just the music but also the historical context and other peoples unqiue views from different cultures. Thank you for reading!

[kosulin]

Abby Whiteside. On Piano Playing
Charles Kenyon. How to Memorize Music
Charles Rosen. Piano Notes. The World of the Pianist
Christopher Berg. Practicing Music by Design.
Chuan Chang. Fundamentals of Piano Practice
George Kochevitsky. The Art of Piano Playing
Gyorgy Sandor. On Piano Playing. Motion, Sound and Expression
Mark Tanner. The Mindful Pianist
Murray McLachlan. The Foundations of Technique
Murray McLachlan. Piano Technique in Practice
Murray McLachlan. The Psychology of Piano Technique
Penelope Roskell. The Complete Pianist
Victoria von Arx. Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau - should be taken with a bit of salt, because I am skeptical of his (outdated) technique.
Musical Performance. A Guide to Understanding, ed. by John Rink

I can probably mention few dozen of books on interpretation and historic performance, this area is very extensive.

And there are more than dozen of books from different authors in Russian similar to Neuhaus that were never translated.

[brogers70]

For some reason, I've never found books that were explicitly about playing the piano very helpful. On the other hand, I've gotten lots of ideas by reading biographies of composers and books on the cultural history around them.

Jan Swafford (himself a composer) has great biographies out on Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. Also one on Ives that I've not read yet.

Ralph Kirkpatrick's biography of Scarlatti is also helpful, and includes a bunch of Kirkpatrick's ideas about interpreting Scarlatti.

Ritchie Robinson's history, The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790, gives lots of cultural background that that overlaps the Baroque and Classical periods.

[jaquet]

Hi brogers70 to be honest i think im the same, often times books about piano technique i find a bit dull at times, but biographies- espcially Arthur Rubinsteins had me hooked from page one. Thanks for the suggestions also, i will check them out.

[jaquet]

Hi kosulin thank you for your list, it seems it will keep me busy for the next year! I was just wondering if the Murray Mclachlan books are actually any good. Alot of well respected muscians which i know, often say he isnt that good as a muscian at least.

[kosulin]

Hi kosulin thank you for your list, it seems it will keep me busy for the next year! I was just wondering if the Murray Mclachlan books are actually any good. Alot of well respected muscians which i know, often say he isnt that good as a muscian at least.

I cannot comment on this authoritatively, because first, this would be very subjective, second - I am not qualified enough to serve as authority, and third - great musician, good teacher, and good author - are three different roles.

As a side note - pretty much everybody swears on the great Neuhaus book, while in my opinion he is hugely overstated as a teacher, and he was not a top notch musician as well, especially outside of Romantic repertoire. There were many teachers at least as good as he was in the Soviet Union of that time, if not better. How much have you heard of, say, Berta Reingbald? She made Gilels as we know him, not Neuhaus. How much have you heard of, say, Igumnov (who spent probably more time with Giliels than Neuhaus when Gilels studied at Moscow Convervatory), Goldenveiser, Sofronitsky, Oborin, Flier, Zak, Milshtein, Feinberg, Lev Barenboim? BTW some of them wrote great books as well which might see an English translation in the future.

[pianistavt]

How much have you heard of, say, Berta Reingbald? She made Gilels as we know him, not Neuhaus. How much have you heard of, say, Igumnov (who spent probably more time with Giliels than Neuhaus when Gilels studied at Moscow Convervatory), Goldenveiser, Sofronitsky, Oborin, Flier, Zak, Milshtein, Feinberg, Lev Barenboim? BTW some of them wrote great books as well which might see an English translation in the future.

How do you know about all these Russian piano teachers?  A sampler book about great pianists/teachers would be interesting, similar to the samplers we get on pianists and composers.  David Dubal's book "The Art of the Piano" was a favorite of mine.  Somehow I no longer have it, and they seem out of print / pricey.  Would like to get the last edition, I had one of the earlier ones.

[kosulin]

How do you know about all these Russian piano teachers?

I grew up in the Soviet Union. These are Soviet teachers, not Russian (except some of them began at the Russian Empire times).

[anacrusis]

A good book which has not yet been mentioned is Chopin: Pianist and Teacher: As Seen by his Pupils.

It contains a lot of bite sized information that can be either inspiring or useful or both for your playing.

[ranjit]

Seymour bernstein is great too.

[kosulin]

Another interesting book in French, very inspirational and highly recommended:
Liszt pédagogue, by Auguste Boissier, written around 1832 and first published in 1927. Available on IMSLP.
Was translated to German in 1930, and to Russian in 1964, I hope there is an English edition as well.