Biographies, autobiographies, memoir recommendations
I recently had the pleasure of listening to Jeremy Denk's book on Audible, Every Good Boy Does Fine, and have since gone on a biography/autobiography/memoir kick. Are there any about pianists or composers that you've found very enjoyable?
Since Denk's book I've listened to Davinia Caddy's JS Bach in Words and Music and Siepmann's biography of Chopin (what a funny man!). Marcia Davenport's biography of Mozart I dropped, since I couldn't easily distinguish between her imagination and the historical record, so I've picked up Jan Swafford's book on Mozart instead, which is more to my liking. Many of these I'm doing because they happen to be available on Hoopla, to which my library system gives me free access. This surely isn't the best way to decide what books to read; much better to ask real people what's good, so I'm asking y'all on ToneBase Piano. :)
I listen to books more than I read them, but if there's something good that's only available in written format, I'm interested in that also. On that note, I recommend Harold Bauer's book entitled, His Book, which is quite funny. Now that it's in the public domain I'm tempted to record an audiobook of it...and also of Liszt's Life of Chopin...but that's a different subject.
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Philip Glass "Words without music" was entertaining, even if he doesn't write much about his most well known pieces (Metamorphosis, Etude no.2, etc).
It's amazing that he funded his own concerts (at a loss!) into his forties.
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Like you I listen to audiobooks - on Audible.
I have listened too to Jeremy Denk’s book and enjoyed it a lot.
Some other piano-related audiobooks on Audible that I have enjoyed (I have no affiliation
). - Romance on Three Legs, concerning Glenn Gould’s and his technician’s fascinating relationship, with lots of insights
- The Great Courses numerous lecture series, particularly by Robert Greenberg and Catherine Kautsky, with musical clips as illustrations.
- Audiobooks by Jonathan Biss
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Likely only ever in print form, and perhaps not exactly what you're after, but as I mentioned in another post, the "Concise Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians" (and/or the unabridged version) at least used to be considered essential references in academic music libraries. The editor, Slonimsky, has a wry sense of humor and in fact all of his works in this genre are worth checking out and contain gems of insight and humor. I keep mine at the ready at all times.
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Hi Marc!
I read Stephen Hough’s “Enough” just after Denk’s book. He also has a great collection of essays called “Rough Ideas”. Alfred Brendel’s “Music Sense and Nonsense”, Andras Schiff’s “Music Comes Out of Silence” and Charles Rosen’s “Piano Notes” are also great. “Play it Again” by Alan Rusbridge was inspirational to me as an amateur. Finally, check out Stuart Isaacoff and his book “Temperament” for a fantastic discussion and explanation of different tuning systems and how/why we arrived at equal temperament.
Cheers,
Tim
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Perri Knize’s book, “Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey” is one I highly recommend. A wonderful story about the author’s journey in piano playing, her search for a perfect sounding (for lack of better words) piano and all the places that takes her. I learned a lot about piano building and tuning too. I haven’t reached the end yet but am thoroughly enjoying it. Check it out!
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Thanks, Geoffrey Grosenbach Michael from London Chris Timothy and Carolyn Cunningham! I'll add all of these to my to-read list, and will look forward to giving them a read/listen.
