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Johannes Brahms: A Biography by Jan Swafford
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Pauline I bought it two days ago and can't put it down. Thanks!
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Linda Gould You're welcome, Linda! I am happy to hear that you are enjoying it so much. I certainly did.
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I love that book!!!
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Darrell Jenkins I am glad you love it, too!
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1) Movie. Coda, Patrick Stewart played the pianist. Some beautiful music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coda_(2019_film)2) As someone mentioned, Jeremy Denk's book on Every Good Boy Does Fine is a really fun relaxing read of his journey thru life&music. I like his self narrated audiobook a lot.
3) Menahem Pressler Documentary: The Life I Love
I find myself being quite inspired by watching his lifelong pursuit and relationship with music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q68g5RkPs3o -
During most of my teenage years, "The Art of Piano Playing" by Heinrich Neuhaus (a recommendation by my first professional piano teacher) came with me pretty much everywhere I went. I must have read it countless times. It is highly personal, reflective of its time, and written distinctly from the perspective of the Russian - and later Soviet - culture and tradition of pianism - but despite that (or maybe because of it), I still think it's one of the best books on playing the piano ever published.
A movie not about piano playing but about vocal music that I love is Susan Froemke's 2007 film "The Audition", about a group of hopeful and passionate young singers attending the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions. Really well made and touching; some of the finalists in that movie are big stars today.
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@Alexander Weymann Love Neuhaus' book too. Glad you mentioned it. It's surprisingly funny writing too - I burst out laughing so many times.
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Song of Love is a very beautiful and touching movie that captures the feelings that were - undoubtedly - or should I say presumably - felt by/between Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. If you have not seen it, you are in for a moving experience. The subtleties, nuances, and the complexities of human relationships at their most intimate are all there. As are the nonverbal communication that one sees between lovers.
Katherine Hepburn portrays Clara, Paul Henreid portrays Robert Schumann (you may recall that Henreid was in the movie Casablanca as Victor Laszlo), and Robert Walker portrays Johannes Brahms. Marvelous.
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Nicolas Slonimsky wrote/compiled some gems, among them "Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians" (or probably the concise version), and "Lectionary of Music". Both sit on a table near my piano, I use them often, and almost always find insight, humor, surprise. Very good "reference" books in the music space. The former, unabridged, at least used to be considered a must have in any serious music library collection.
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Chris I am going to look into these. Thanks, Chris!
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I'd like to also recommend these that have been listed here already:
Seymour: An Introduction, the Seymour Bernstein documentary
Every Good Boy Does Fine, Jeremy Denk's book
I'm surprised no one has mentioned '32 Short Films About Glenn Gould', it's a classic.
And Ken Russell made a very strange movie about Mahler, called 'Mahler', in 1974. The actor playing Mahler looks so much like him it's scary.
And I have to recommend two others that are not about classical music - the movie 'Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story' is a hilarious parody of Hollywood musician biopics, and the book 'Utopia Avenue' by David Mitchell. It takes place in the world of 1960's British psychedelic rock, but is related to his other novels too, because they all occur in the same universe. -
Because of repeated recommendations, I am enjoying and learning a lot from Jeremy Denk's book. A captivating blend of analytic listening and personal storytelling. Thank you.
In 2006 I had the opportunity (and huge challenge) of directing the play of Amadeus-Peter Schaffer's script. It's a wonderful script - amazing playwright. Even if it's not quite historically accurate.
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Rethinking Prokofiev. So much unique insight on this one…
