The Art of Piano Playing

By Heinrich Neuhaus and Neuhaus

Book Overview

Neuhaus taught at the Moscow Conservatory and his pupils included some of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century: Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Nina Svetlanova, Alexei Lubimov and Radu... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1871082455
• ISBN13: 9781871082456
• Release Date: December 2016
• Publisher: Kahn & Averill
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Very interesting

His uncle Felix Blumenfeld was a Horowitz teacher. Some of Neuhaus students among many others: - Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, both considered top 10 world pianists. - The first teacher (the mother) of Andrei Gavrilov. - Radu Lupu. This book is funny as exemplified below by some excerpts: "Thinking about art and science, about their mutual relationship and contradictions, I came to the conclusion, for some reason or other, that mathematics and music are situated at extreme poles of the human spirit, that these two antipodes limit and determine the whole spiritual and creative activity of man and that situated between them is everything that mankind has created in the field of science and art". I found his above childish thoughts very interesting, perhaps meaning that everything is a linear combination of pure logic (math) and pure emotion (music). As I work with math and like to play piano I will tend to be a "complete" human being :-) Other of his "jokes": "When Emil Gilels came to study with me in the Moscow State Conservatory, I was once forced to say to him: You are already a grown man, you can eat steak and drink beer but so far you have been fed with a baby's bottle" "I remember that when Glazunov was about fifty his mother used to tell the washerwoman to be careful with the child's linen" "To play the piano is easy. I mean the physical process, and not the summit of pianistic art.It is obvious that to play the piano very well is just as difficult as to do anything else very well, for instance to pull teeth or macadam a road". "I must once more apologize for this excessively long history about myself; that is always somewhat indecent. But what can one do?" "Carl Czerny, the "dry and methodical genius" who has tortured generations of pianists wih an inexhaustible stream of studies and exercises..." And many more... His jokes are almost everywere. Otherwise the book has several useful recommendations and analysis about the art of piano playing and has chapters on "artistic image of a musical composition", on tone, on technique and on teaching activity. But be advised: Sometimes the book is a bit verbose, repetitive and philosophical. It is not directed only to technical problems.

A classic....

Lets put it this way.... this is not light reading (is the slang word an airplane book?). It is though one of the best books on playing the piano. Neuhaus is concise, to the point and likes to put out interesting anecdotes, some humorous. This is also pretty advanced so I doubt non musicians could find any utility apart from historical tidbits. Neuhaus taught Richter who taught many others.... and just like we do with other disciplines - we have to pay tribute to the forefather of this lineage/legacy, especially since he helped produce Richter.

Tolstoy of the Piano

I'm sure anyone shopping for this book knows that Heinrich Neuhaus was the mentor of such giants of the piano as Richter, Gilels and Lupu. Well, here between these covers you'll find the reason why. Neuhaus possessed a great mind and an ability to express himself like no other pedagogue I have read. While reading his book I kept thinking I was reading Tolstoy, not for any similarity of style or substance but because I got the same feeling from both their works, that here is a great man who had lived a full life, and then had the patience and wherewithal to sit down and commit it to paper, thereby enriching piano posterity. This book deserves pride of place on any pianist's bookshelf. I thank the previous reviewer who said that it was a crime that this book is out of print. I paid a hefty amount for what looks like a slim volume, but it is packed with such profundity that I have to consider this a seminal addition to my library. Get it wherever you can, this is one for the ages.

A must for all pianists alike

This book is simply outstanding. It should in fact be standard reading for all piano students and professionals alike, and even to some extent qualifies as a reference on artistic piano playing. It is excellently well written, entertaining, funny, inspiring, and very educational. It is well worth reading many times, since the profundity of some of the advice given actually needs digestion and experimentation at the piano to fully grasp. It is a crime that this book is out of print.

Whisdom of a teacher

When I first read this book I knew almost notihng about interpritation. Since the first time I read it (because it's worth reading it more than one time) I have begun to play the piano in a totaly different way. There are plenty of usefull tips in it, although the author states that that was not in his intentions. The most important is that you must not struggle for a perfect technique or an nice sound, but those two elements should be the key to a meaningfull interpritation. As a book, it is very easy to read since it combines personal experiences and advice about piano-playing. It makes the reader seek for more similar books in order to learn how great pianists aproached a skore. It is excelent both for the beginner and the experinced pianist, who can get an idea of how the great teacher of Russia teached his famous studends (Richer, Gilels...)