Ignaz Friedman: Romantic Master Pianist

Ignaz Friedman: Romantic Master Pianist

By Allan Evans
Published by Indiana University Press
416 pp., 21 b&w photos, 10 figures
Cloth - List Price: $39.95, ISBN: 978-0-253-35310-8

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“Nothing is harder to bring back to life than a dead pianist, no matter how effervescent or influential. The art dies with the fingers. What Allan Evans has done - not once but three times - is to make the late artist seem absoutely relevant to our times. First he revived Moriz Rosenthal. Here he quickens Ignaz Friedman as a bearer of the grand tradition and - bonus - he exhumes the extraordinary Tiegerman, Chopin of the Cairo souk. Almost every page of Evans' contains an eye-widening revelation.”
—Norman Lebrecht

Evans's groundbreaking biography of Ignaz Friedman gives the reader the behind and the between of the life and career of this extraordinary pianist. Friedman's repertory emphasized the major works of Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms, but he was perhaps best known for his interpretation of the Chopin mazurkas, which by all accounts he played with the same rhythmic nuance as their composer.

Moriz Rosenthal in Word and Music

Moriz Rosenthal in Word and Music:
A Legacy of the Nineteenth Century

Edited and with an Introduction by Mark Mitchell and Allan Evans
Preface by Charles Rosen
Published by Indiana University Press
208 pages, 9 b&w photos

“These recordings and others will satisfy the curiosity that must be provoked by the opportunity here afforded; and, for that opportunity, we must acknowledge the informed and valuable work of Mark Mitchell and Allan Evans.”
—Chronicles, July 2006
“This is a valuable work for pianists and an enjoyable read for everyone. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Inclusive music libraries serving readers at all levels.”
—Choice

As a pianist, Rosenthal was unparalleled: his legato touch came from Chopin through his pupil Mikuli; his awareness of composition was developed by Liszt; his Brahms interpretation shaped by the composer himself; and his ingeniously crafted piano-paraphrases memorialized his friendship with Johann Strauss II. Yet Rosenthal’s pianistic abilities were married to a rare intellectual erudition—a knowledge of literature, history, philology, science, philosophy, and society that few pianists have ever matched, let alone surpassed.

In these striking pieces, we see every facet of Rosenthal: memoirist, social critic, pedagogue, and virtuoso. He could write with gravity and pathos, yet his famous and sometimes devastating wit is legendary. This volume combines Rosenthal’s writings with critical assessments of the pianist by such contemporaries as Eduard Hanslick, Edward Prime-Stevenson, and Hugo Wolf. It is rounded out with an illuminating preface by Charles Rosen, perhaps Rosenthal’s most renowned pupil; a discography and concertography; and a CD featuring never-before-released Rosenthal recordings.

Mark Mitchell is the author of Virtuosi and Vladimir de Pachmann both published by Indiana University Press. He is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for 2006-2007. Allan Evans is the founder, owner, and producer of Arbiter Recording Company. He lives in New York City.