Über Musik: sämtliche Essays und Reden

by Alfred Brendel

Rare Book

Genres: Music, Essays, Nonfiction, Classical Music

535 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Alfred Brendel was a Czech-born Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer noted for his performances of music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt. He made three recordings of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas and was the first pianist to record Beethoven's complete works for solo piano.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a persistent prejudice that pianists and other musicians should stay away from reading as something construed to be injurious to their ability to play their instrument or sing. The present collection of essays goes a long way toward disproving this notion: some musicians not only read books, they write them as well!
Most of these essays are approachable enough. One exception is a lengthy, serious, Tovey-like study of the motivic interrelationships among the Schubert last three sonatas. Perseverance, however, pays, and slogging through the difficult moments results in enhanced appreciation of this great music. I found it helpful to have the score of the sonatas near to hand, either in print or by access to the www.imslp.org website. In general, I might add, reading this book has allowed me to gain in my understanding of the instrumental music of Schubert, a composer who with respect to this segment of the repertoire listeners and performers sometimes wrongly oblige to stand in the shadow of his hero Beethoven.
Of all the collections of essays on piano playing by pianists that I have read, this one is the richest with regard to practical advice for interpreters, the one that most, most sustainedly, and most probingly gets into the nitty-gritty of it all. I might say that of all the trees of this species that I know, this is the one with the most complex branch structure. I recommend it to pianists as one to know, think about, and refer to every so often, if only because all the ideas it presents will not be easy to internalize all at once and will in fact invite regular revisiting.
One final characteristic of this book that I would like to mention is the author’s obvious love for listening to recorded performances and his obvious knowledge of the recorded tradition of piano music. We are singularly fortunate to now have many of these recordings readily available on the www.youtube.com website, and it can be revealing in itself to listen to some of them with Brendel as guide.

[Rana Gediz Iren · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only I could understand it:)))) I try:)

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few great insights for all musicians, but much of the commentary is only relevant to pianists.

[Argel Landeros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genial…!