---
product_id: 10010968
title: "Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist"
brand: "charles rosen"
price: "€ 31.37"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 11
url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/10010968-piano-notes-the-world-of-the-pianist
store_origin: HR
region: Croatia
---

# Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist

**Brand:** charles rosen
**Price:** € 31.37
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist by charles rosen
- **How much does it cost?** € 31.37 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
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- charles rosen enthusiasts

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## Description

Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist

## Images

![Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u9Vht8JBS.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    informative, insightful, opinionated, occasionally hilarious
  

*by D***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 11, 2023*

most reviews here will note that this splendid book has a lot to say about the piano and its place in classical music. and it certainly does. but it is much more.it is chock with informative anecdotes from history, such as Liszt playing difficult music while holding a cigar between his fingers. it is buoyed by a pedagogical outlook that treats playing the piano as kind of a sport like tennis or fencing, treats the piano as a "fragile" instrument, disparages "master classes" and endorses indignation in private lessons. it reflects an ominvore's creed that there is no right or wrong way to interpret a piece, or that following a tradition is the best way to kill it, or that pianists that either strongly please or displease on first hearing are worth hearing again. this encompassing outlook extends to his purely technical observations, for example that there is no right or wrong position to sit before or hand technique to play upon the piano, and that certain great pianists had small hands or stubby fingers.the whole is seasoned with occasional very droll music world stories. at a concert where the pianist played a Chopin nocturne at unreasonable speed, Rosen asked his friend, "Why is he playing it that fast?" "Because he can't play it any faster" was the answer. Milton Babbitt's noncommittal way to praise a player for a performance: "You did it again!" Rubenstein once remarked of other pianists, "If they play badly I feel terrible; if they play well I feel worse."this is a book to value not just for the insights it brings but for the experience, humanity and grace with which it is written. highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Erudite and entertaining
  

*by R***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 23, 2023*

A terrific read.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Noteworthy
  

*by A***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 20, 2008*

I begin with a paraphrase from Rosen's book, "A review should cultivate a certain humility before a really fine pianist and writer."  Rosen is both.  In fact, the man is so talented as to be somewhat intimidating.  Not only is he a world-class pianist, he has written volumes on various musical subjects, holds a doctorate in French literature from Princeton, and has served on the faculty at the University of Chicago.  He is one of America's remaining public intellectuals.Rosen's earlier works, "Sonata Forms," "The Classical Style," and "The Romantic Generation," have all entered the canon of works that are absolutely essential for the well-informed musician and critic.  "Piano Notes" takes a lighter approach: it is part memoir, part anecdote, always highly opinionated, with some choice gossip thrown in.  Often, his tongue is firmly planted in cheek.  In other words, it's great reading.In relatively few well-chosen words, Rosen offers his considered opinions on topics as diverse as Bach performance, piano tuning and regulation, shenanigans in the recording studio, piano conservatories and competitions, the uses and misuses of concerts and recitals, and the best method of piano practicing for pure technique--reading while practicing, but scrupulously avoiding poetry and "really admirable prose" because these interfere with the rhythm of the music.  "The most useful, I have found for myself, are detective stories, sociology and literary criticism.  However, any reading matter that distracts the mind without engaging the senses or the emotions too powerfully will work."  (p. 40).Rosen believes the traditional piano recital, complete with grand piano, darkened hall, and the costumed pianist as high priest, is on the way out, largely because of the relative ease of acquiring fine recorded performances of most of the repertoire.  I for one hope he's wrong.  There is something marvelous, as Rosen points out, in caressing those ivory and ebony keys, and having music come out.  The person who has never experienced that will never understand the blissful expression on the faces of so many pianists when they can share music with others.  But those of us lucky enough to have felt music flow from our fingers and to have placed themselves and others under its thrall, will completely understand when Rosen when rhapsodizes of the pianist's fetishistic need for physical contact with the ebony and ivory, and of the inexpressible beauty that results.An update end of year 2012:  My most recent copy of the New York Review of Books, where Rosen published an amazing number of pithy, often controversial but always interesting essays, discloses that he passed away the in the latter part of this year.  Rosen's passing is a loss to be mourned by every person who found herself enthralled by his superb writing or his equally magisterial piano performances.  I will certainly miss the Maestro, and will regret not being able to look forward to his next tome.  I've tried to collect them all.  RIP, dear Charles Rosen; we are so much the poorer for your passing.

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*Product available on Desertcart Croatia*
*Store origin: HR*
*Last updated: 2026-03-24*