The Composer's Landscape: The Pianist as Explorer - Interpreting the Scores of Eight Masters [With CD (Audio)] (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781574674521)

Derived from a popular series of lecture-recitals presented by Carol Montparker over the past several years, The Composer's Landscape features eight insightful essays on the piano repertoire. Each chapter focuses on a single composer: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, and Mendelssohn. Montparker uses landscape as a metaphor for the score, whether it be a well-tended garden of Mozart or the thorny thickets on a Schumann page: the topographical peaks and valleys, the circuitous melodic lines, the thoroughfares where all the voices convene, and so on. The discussions include thoughtful suggestions for navigating these "landscapes " which differ so greatly from one composer to the next, taking note of the essential technical and interpretive elements, as well as the challenges for the "explorer pianist."

As an actively performing pianist, lecturer, teacher, music journalist, and author of six other books on music, Montparker has the experience and understanding to guide readers through these issues while elucidating the finer points. Woven into her text are excerpts from her interviews with world-renowned pianists, from Alfred Brendel to André Watts, conducted during her many years as senior editor of Clavier magazine. The book also includes images from original autograph manuscripts and a CD of Montparker performing selections by composers featured in the book.

Author: Carol Montparker
ISBN-10: 1574674528
ISBN-13: 9781574674521
Publisher: Amadeus
Language: English
Published: 09/01/2014
Pages: 278
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 8.98h x 6.12w x 0.76d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2015 pg. 1324

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