Dennis Dutton has written a thoughtful review of Charles Rosen's recent Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist . I thought it would interest more than a few folks here on PW.

A few excerpts:

(*) The piano, in case no one has noticed, is in steep, serious decline....The decline in the number of amateur pianists, people with knowledgeable admiration of piano playing, has tracked the decline of the piano virtuoso as classical star.

(*) In fact, the whole idea of historic authenticity as a musical ideal is an annoyance to Rosen, and not only for reasons familiar from the work of critics of authenticity such as Richard Taruskin. Rosen agrees that it would be very difficult ever to know with certainty what Beethoven’s playing or Bach’s ensembles sounded like. Maybe so; but Rosen’s overall objection to the cult of authenticity is deeper, and has more to do with his conception of what music and music interpretation has to be, if it is to remain as a living art.

(*) Turning to piano music, he says that “relatively few” pianists even attempt pieces written after 1920 and “this is not so much because the public does not favor this music, but because so many of today’s professional pianists and certainly the great majority of amateurs are unable to come to terms with it.”

(*) There is much made in Piano Notes of the physicality of piano playing, which is entirely fitting, as Rosen is such a muscular pianist. His strength, however, is as much intellectual as physical. There is not a page in this book that does not incite thought and argument.

Read the full review HERE .


Cheers,

N.