Alfred Brendel on Music: Collected Essays

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Summary: Brendel's collected essays
Review: Alfred Brendel discusses Classical and Romantic masterpieces, as well as various other musical subjects, in this collection of essays dating from the 1960's to the present. Many of these essays are clearly intended for people with a somewhat advanced musical familiarity. Pianists will find especially useful the chapters on Beethoven and Schubert sonatas, in which Brendel touches on style and interpretation, with excerpts from the scores. There is also a very intersting section about Schumann's Kinderszenen.

Numerous other essays here are accessible to beginners as well, and can be enjoyed simply for the author's wit and insight. 'Coping with Pianos' and 'A Case for Live Recordings,' for example, should be pleasurable reading for any music lover interested the technicalities behind the performance.