- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Indiana University Press (November 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0253337577
- ISBN-13: 978-0253337573
- Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 1.4 x 0.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,233,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
In Mitchell's view, a virtuoso not only plays with superb technique but also invests love of the music in the performance, dares to be spontaneous, and collaborates with the composer in interpreting the work. A virtuoso should hold "the academy" at bay, for it is, Mitchell says, conservative and perhaps commercially oriented. Interspersed with commentary on the pianists he considers virtuosi, Mitchell discusses the social status of female pianists, encores, Paris, virtuosi in literature (particularly in E. M. Forster's novels), pianists portrayed in movies, pianists' seats, and competitions, which he decries. Throughout these short and long polemics, Mitchell shows that the qualities of the virtuoso transcend adversity, so that the virtuosi often triumph in the end over the academy. Along with all the history, stories, and opinions on the art of piano playing he relays, Mitchell provokes readers to assess the current state of music and performance in society and begin to change it. Meant for experienced classical music lovers, who will treasure its wealth of ear-opening comments. Alan Hirsch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A literary work of real elan, vibrancy, and grace." - Cynthia Ozick "Vigorous, opinionated, and always entertaining ... a personal essayist of great charm and sincerity." - Edmund White "Other subjects that Mr. Mitchell explores include the traditional linking of musical and sexual virtuosity, the ethical implications of the 'original instruments' movement, the near deification of Mozart in Anglo-Saxon culture, and, in a particularly witty section, the relationship of the virtuoso to his stool. Throughout, Mr. Mitchell's prose is humorous, intimate, and unapologeticaly polemical." - Cynthia Ozick "This excitingly partisan book takes up such subjects as child prodigies, the homosexual aesthetic, the pre-eminence of Schumann, the continuing development of the piano as mechanism, the significance of player piano rolls, and the presentation of virtuoso music in film and literature. Mitchell's erudition - his collection of odd and illuminating bits of knowledge - is always a delight and adds a sauce piquante to the whole dish!" - Edmund White
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Something there is that does not love a vistuoso, and the word itself has often been applied dismissively, as an accusation of superficiality. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Something there is that does not love a vistuoso, and the word itself has often been applied dismissively, as an accusation of superficiality. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking book for pianists and those who love them,
By greg presley (Spokane, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Virtuosi: A Defense and a (Sometimes Erotic) Celebration of Great Pianists (Hardcover)
It was a pleasure to read this book for its refreshing and unhackneyed investigation of the special world of virtuosi. The interspersal of autobiographical material reminds the reader that all responses to music and musicians are individual and personal. We react both to the experience of the music and to our relationship (real or imagined) with the performer. Of course sex is a part of that - why else has Tom Cruise spent a fortune in lawyers' fees recently defending himself of charges of being homosexual? As I read the book, it is neither a scientific analysis of the phenomenon of virtuosity, nor a psychological one, but the written musings of an author who has obviously spent a lifetime researching these artists, attending their concerts, reading their biographies, listening to their recordings, and who then shoots us, the readers, stream-of-consciousness fashion into their world with all its many facets. Although this scatter-gun approach is sometimes dizzying, it is also exhilirating at times.The author's biases cause us to pay heed to the pianists' motivations, drives, training, sexuality, musical priorities and repertory choices, and then presents us with the major question of the book - is music better served by the pianist who has dedicated himself to becoming a superlative and electrifying performer, or by the pianist who has sought to minimize his own personality's contribution to the performance in an effort to reveal the composer's intent? This is a central question in the world of classical piano today, and at least this book's author is not scared of proclaiming his opinion unequivocably.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Ebb Tide of Critical Discourse; In Mitchell's Defense,
By michael carroll "michael carroll" (new york, new york United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Virtuosi: A Defense and a (Sometimes Erotic) Celebration of Great Pianists (Hardcover)
I have grave reservations about the amazon rating system, not because it's so democratic but because like it or not it's for all intents and purposes anonymous. ... Since part of Mitchell's premise is that being gay is necessarily a component of personality, and personality is vital to an artist's performance or mode of expression, it only stands to reason that virtuoso playing should involve a personal aesthetic. It is a very personality-driven and paradoxically private public endeavor, rather like the "private language" (as Edmund Wilson describes it in AXEL'S CASTLE) of the Symbolist poetry being written throughout much of the period Mitchell is describing. This book is attempting to elucidate and describe a phenomenon in an area where very often little is known of the performers' private lives, since artists such as musicians and composers have always relied heavily on the graces and approval of patrons. (I'm talking about a time before an era saturated with mass media--when people can choose to come out either as a sincere gesture of solidarity, or as a savvy, provocative career move, flouting the conventions to get a rise out of sales.) A patron--a bishop or prince, an industrialist's wife--was someone you didn't want to risk offending. No wonder Proust was taken until quite recently by critics--in France included--as the same heterosexual cocksman as his narrator Marcel. Proust avoided alienating his readers, 90% of whom were straight and wouldn't have "gotten it" if Proust had written 3000+ pages of narrative filtered through the point of view of a gay man.Part of what Mitchell is pointing out is that despite plenty of evidence pointing to the fact that a horde of top-flight artists in all fields have been gay, in music--particularly piano pieces without lyrics (the very form Mitchell is concerned with)--we have, paradoxically, the most abstract and elusive medium, in which a "private language" (like Rimbaud's quizzically visionary abstractions) must carry the full weight of artistic expression. These can only be supported by currents drawn or springing from the artist's personal reserves of experience and interpretation. The fact that the artist might be in love or have in store a hot date later that same night would certainly be relevant to a piece driven by the private language of passion. ... What Mitchell is trying to do is decode the transpositions of what we've always presumptuously held to be universal back into the private particulars. In doing so, he must of course presume, but keep in mind that he's also swimming against the currents of centuries of culturally sprung presumptions.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stimulating and, better yet, fun,
By A Customer
This review is from: Virtuosi: A Defense and a (Sometimes Erotic) Celebration of Great Pianists (Hardcover)
I found this book thoroughly fascinating--not merely a detailed consideration of specific piano virtuosi, but a philosophically complex meditation on how we, as human beings, cope with the phenomenon of genius. As its title suggests, Mitchell's book is above all a defense of virtuosi against charges that they are demonic, super- or sub-human, and his enthusiasm and passion for his subject is contagious. The alternation of personal essays with investigations into such issues as historical performance, the experience of women pianists, and the virtuoso in literature gives the book a quality of personality that I found distinctly refreshing, while the discussion of the connection between (homo)sexuality and pianism, which other readers found annoying, I thought brave, astute and powerful.All in all, in a superb book.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Entertainment > Music > Biographies
- Books > Entertainment > Music > History & Criticism
- Books > Entertainment > Music > Instruments & Performers > Piano
- Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Classical
- Books > Literature & Fiction
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Performing Arts > Music
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
