Charles Rosen, age 85, passed away.

It's about time someone posted about this. I was going to earlier. We have truly lost a legend! Favorite writings? and why? I love the Classical Style. Really was my first non "textbook" academic music reading and challenged me to think about things from a variety of perspectives. I just added almost all his books to my amazon wish list!

Despite his authorship of the wonderful "Piano Notes," I've always thought that he was overlooked and under-appreciated as a pianist. His recordings of standard rep always contained "the shock of the new" to me. Meaning: Yes, at first there seemed to be the 'cold' and 'intellectual' impression. And after that, I also always found something else that seemed unagreeable and sometimes polarizing. Of course, in due time it turns out that those impressions were always dead wrong, the result of my ignorance.

(Ignorance that might've stemmed from the fact that I never finished any of his books - except the one mentioned above.)

I wonder if he ever lost an argument?

RIP, sir.

Never heard of him. Going to order The Classical Style though.

This news saddens me. I discovered him thanks to this CD:


This is still my favorite interpretation of the Liszt sonata (probably also because it was the first one I heard).

I had the good fortune to have a lesson with him as an undergrad when he visited my university. However, it turned out not to be the standard one-hour lesson, but a three-hour one with many insights and interesting digressions. Truly an amazing mind.

I only regret that I was then not yet 20 years old and could barely absorb all that he had to offer.

I've heard about his writings for years, and now I'm moved to start reading.

What a brilliant and multidimensional man! not only a wonderful pianist and musical scholar, but a doctorate in French, an accomplished poet and professor of poetry and French, cook, writer (winner of the National Book Award).. an amazing array of talents and accomplishments. A great loss to the world of arts and culture.

I read a number of his books -'The Romantic Generation' is particularly recommended- and found them all very stimulating if occasionally a bit opaque and slightly over my head.

One wonders where he found the time to get through as much music as he did... and in such depth! (Not to mention the amount of practising required to toss off Liszt's 'Don Juan'.)

A brilliant man and a great artist who will be missed. Like the music he wrote about, his writings sometimes do not give up their secrets easily, but offer new insights every time you revisit them.

I was going to post this in the Beethoven Sonatas thread before I heard of his passing, but it now seems more fitting here. Rosen's recordings of the late sonatas surely rank among my favorites and each is a gem in its own right. I recommend them to everyone who hasn't yet had the chance to enjoy them.

I just ordered his most recent book, Freedom and the Arts: Essays on Music and Literature, and his recording of Beethoven's late Sonatas.

(BTW, it had been).