The great pianists
by Harold C. Schonberg · first published 1962
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From Mozart's fabulous legato that "flowed like oil" to Beethoven's oceanlike surge, from Clara Schumann's touch "sharp as a pencil sketch" to Rubinstein's volcanic and sensual playing, The Great Pianists brings to life the brilliant, stylish, and sometimes eccentric personalities, methods, and technical peculiarities of history's greatest pianists. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Harold C. Schonberg presents vivid accounts of the artists' performances, styles, and even their personal lives and quirky characteristics -- such as Mozart's intense competition with Clementi, Lizst's magne
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Do you want to read a really entertaining book? The Great Pianists, by Harold C. Shonberg https://www.amazon.com/Great-Pianists-Mozart-Present/dp/0671... You don't have to worry about reading the whole thing. Read through Bach and Mozart (and maybe Beethoven) to begin…
on “Apple acquires classical music streaming service Primephonic” ↗…stockpile of salient words, metaphors, turns of phrase and clichés – usually organised thematically – that they would then draw upon while writing. I'm reminded of an excellent passage from "Lives of the Great Pianists" by former New York Times music critic Harold Schonberg when speaking on the strength of Beethoven's musical extemporization: "How much Beethoven prepared his improvisations we do not know. Most pianists…
on “Methodical Banality” ↗…one of the strongest improvisers of his day, completely upstaged Steibelt, a contemporary musician and by all accounts a bit of a charlatan. I'll include the entire quote verbatim from "The Lives of the Great Pianists" by Harold Schonberg. This time Steibelt had prepared a brilliant fantasy for piano and strings, the theme coming from the Beethoven trio he had heard the previous week. Steibelt's admirers were in…
on “Show HN: I trained a 125M model to autocomplete piano on-device” ↗