SOLVED. Boy savant playing the piano (duplicate thread)

[Natasha]

I am desperately trying to find the title and author of a book I read many years ago (probably about 10 - 12 years ago). It is about a boy who is an extremely talented pianist. He also is a bit if a savant - in one part of the book he describes his experience of hearing a composition by (I can't remember who) and he was able to visualise it (a forest with lots of green trees and plants). He has a piano teacher who is also quite impressed with him. I remember that he was also not able to read music - he would play by ear. In a competition towards the end of the book he was disqualified because he played the wrong piece of music (because he was not able to read the sheet music in front of him). He was consoled by his teacher (or someone) when they told him that even Mozart played by ear. I think that there was also some kind of strife happening in the kids life at the time. I hope someone can help me with this. Thank you!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Was it adult fiction or YA? I don't remember enough to know if this book matches your description, but The Beethoven Medal is about a talented teenage (or early 20s?) pianist named Patrick Pennington who definitely has strife in his life. I think he goes to prison at some point. There are several Pennington books by K.M. Peyton, I loved them as a kid.

[Natasha]

It was definitely young adult. The protaganist was younger than 16 year of age. The entire book was also littered with musical references but in a way that made the reader want to learn about the compositions.

[Anna]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Was it adult fiction or YA? I don't remember enough to know if this book matches your description, but The Beethoven Medal is about a talented teenage (or early 20s?) pianist named Patrick Penning..."

The Pennington books don't quite match the original description: Pennington, the hero of the three books, is certainly rough around the edges, and has family problems, but he can definitely read music.

There are several scenes in the third book (Pennington's Heir) where his wife accompanies him to concerts and lessons as his page-turner, and scenes where he is reading scores in bed in order to memorize the music for upcoming concerts.

[Andria]

Maybe Spider: A Novel by William Taylor? He's a teen piano prodigy, there's a competition involved, and sounds like there's some kind of drama with his mother:

From review: "Spider soon discovers something about his mother which throws their close relationship into painful confusion."

[Natasha]

The title does not ring a bell and I just had a look at the synopsis and confirmed that Spider is not the book. From memory, I have a strong feeling that the book had a purple cover and the title was a little whimsical...

Thanks for the help :)

[bookel]

I don't know if this is it, but being by Sleator it's bound to be good!

Fingers by William Sleator
Publisher: New York : Atheneum, 1983.
Eighteen-year-old Sam falls in with his mother's bizarre scheme to revitalize his younger brother's flagging career as a piano prodigy, and agrees to compose "new works" by a long dead composer and present them to his brother as the dictations of a ghost.

Found on worldcat.org Search results for 'kw:piano prodigy' > '1950..2003' > 'Book' > 'Fiction' > 'English' > 'Juvenile'
---
Or try these results
Search results for 'kw:pianist' > '1950..2003' > 'Book' > 'Fiction' > 'English' > 'Juvenile'

Pennington's last term,
Author: K M Peyton
Publisher: New York, Crowell [1971, ©1970]
Forced to go to school one more year to graduate, sixteen-year-old Pennington seems alternately bent on proving he is the thug most of his teachers consider him and the gifted pianist the music master says he is.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Firmament?

While struggling to cope with the death of his father, a gifted musician, fourteen-year-old Luke must deal with a dangerous bully, a lonely old woman, a blind young girl, his mother's romantic involvement, and his own musical talent.

Looks like Natasha has left the Group.

[Ayshe]

Solved here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Oh look, I solved it first! (Rare.) Firmament is the U.S. title of Starseeker.

I'm going to close this thread since it's a duplicate.