In this splendidly engrossing and vividly descriptive book, Isacoff--performer, critic, teacher--celebrates the piano and the composers and performers who have made it their own. Here is the instrument in all its complexity and beauty--one of the great accomplishments of the Western musical tradition.
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In this splendidly engrossing and vividly descriptive book, Isacoff--performer, critic, teacher--celebrates the piano and the composers and performers who have made it their own. Here is the instrument in all its complexity and beauty--one of the great accomplishments of the Western musical tradition.
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Pianist and author Stuart Isacoff begins his new book, "A Natural History of the Piano: The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians -- from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between" at a seemingly odd place well in the middle of the story. The book opens abruptly with a portrayal of the jazz pianist Oscar Peterson at the age of 81 moving his broken body to the piano at New York's Birdland and playing with the "effortless fluidity and clockwork precision" that were the foundation of his artistic expression. Isacoff explains that Peterson had spent long years in training as a classical pianist, and that his musical style melded classical elements with jazz. He juxtaposes Peterson's way with the piano with quotations from classical musicians Piotyr Anderszewski and Menahem Pressler, who is about the age as was Peterson. What Pressler says could have been said by Peterson and by many pianists:
"The other night I was playing the Schubert B-flat sonata on [a new piano Pressler had selected], and the piano was like a living soul. This was at the end of the day, and I was very tired. And yet I was reminded of what a happy man I am playing on such a piano. You become elated, invigorated, and inspired all through something built by a factory. It tells me that there is more to life than we can see."
The love of the piano, its breadth, and its tendency towards democratization are themes that run through Isacoff's "natural history" of the instrument. The large sweep of the book in a relatively brief 350 pages creates some difficulty. There is little room for in-depth treatment: the treatment of some important composers and performers is skimpy while relatively minor people and trends may receive too much attention. This problem might be difficult to avoid in a book of this type. The book also tends to skip around and to be slightly disjointed. From the beginning chapter which uses Peterson as a bridge between musical traditions, Isacoff veers back 300 years to the creation of the instrument, moves to a good chapter on Mozart as the "first piano superstar", and then offers chapters on the social history of the instrument and on the perils of performing. Isacoff illustrates his theme and tells the piano's story but at the price of stylistic awkwardness.
At the heart of his book, Isacoff develops what he calls four rough musical types, the "combustibles, alchemists, rhythmitizers, and melodists" (any serious musician will be a blend of all four components, but with certain emphases) and illustrates each type with a cross-section of composers and performers from classical to jazz to blues and rock. The musicians are as diverse as Beethoven and Schubert on the one hand and Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino on the other hand. The discussions of the musicians are short but revealing. Even better is Isacoff's attempt to draw parallels across seemingly different musical types, to show the diversity of music, and the shared love and passion that underlies commitment to it in any genre. The last several chapters of the book focus on various performers, particularly Russian and German pianists, including Horowitz, Rubenstein, Brendel, and Schnabel, American pianists such as Van Cliburn, and the eccentric Glen Gould. Isacoff considers the positive and negative results of piano competitions, the impact of technology and electronics on the piano, and much more.
The book is replete with over 300 illustrations of pianos and musicians which complement the text in bringing the story of the piano to life. In addition, Isacoff offers throughout many insets in the form of quotations from composers and pianists, such as the quotation from Pressler at the beginning of the review. Although they distract the flow of the text and occasionally reminded me of sound-bites, these insights are on the whole illuminating.
With the distractions I found and the small reservations I have about the book, I would not have missed it. I have been an amateur pianist and a lover of music for most of my life. It was moving the visit the piano and those who have written for and played it. The book reminded me of a great deal, taught me, and helped me understand my engagement with the piano.
