Virtuosi
A Defense and a (Sometimes Erotic) Celebration of Great
Pianists
Mark Mitchell
A bravura performance
"Vigorous, opinionated, and always entertaining, here is a
personal essayist of great charm and sincerity. Mitchell s
erudition his collection of odd and illuminating bits of knowledge
is always a delight and adds a sauce piquanteto the whole dish "
Edmund White
..".a literary work of real elan, vibrancy, and grace the very
qualities that in his view define the virtuoso. Mr. Mitchell
explores] the traditional linking of musical and sexual virtuosity,
the ethical implications of the original instruments movement, the
near deification of Mozart in Anglo-Saxon culture, and, in a
particularly witty section, the relationship of the virtuoso to his
stool. Throughout, Mr. Mitchell's prose is humorous, intimate, and
unapologeticaly polemical." Cynthia Ozick
The artistic merit of performers with superior technique has
long been almost ipso facto denied. At last, Mark Mitchell launches
a counterattack. In essays crackling with pianistic lore, Mitchell
takes on topics such as encores, prodigies, competitions, virtuosi
in film and literature, and the erotics of musical performance.
Liszt, Horowitz, and Argerich share these pages with the eccentric
Pachmann, Ervin Nyiregyh ("the skid-row pianist"), and Liberace.
The illustrations include rare portraits of long-forgotten girl
prodigies, historic concert programs, and stills from a lost 1927
film on Beethoven. Punctuating this celebration of personal voice
are vignettes, running from the beginnings of the author's
obsession with the piano to the particularities of concert-going in
Italy (where he now lives).
Mark Mitchell's piano studies led to a friendship with Vladimir
Horowitz and other pianistic luminaries. With David Leavitt he
co-authored Italian Pleasures and co-edited Pages Passed from Hand
to Hand. He also edited The Penguin Book of International Gay
Writing."
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