Famous Pianists & Their Technique

Rating:
Summary: Gerig reviews the technique of great pianists
Review: This book is a wonderful technical resource for mature pianists that want to really discover the secrets of how the immortal professional pianists of our century and the last polished their piano technique. This is a great comprehensive book of all of the best pianists and their mechanical ways of doing things at the keyboard. Gerig gives cites quotes and thoughts from many great pianists and teachers, and then adds his own commentary to them and explains what he thinks they are trying to say. The reason why I gave it four stars instead of five is because it is moderately tedious to read in certain parts. The explanation which some of the pianists give is in such great, exacting detail that it is necessary to read some parts of it several times in order to fully grasp the meaning of it. This is a great book and definately worth reading if one wishes to seriously study how to play the piano. However, it is an extremely advanced book and is full of very specific information and terms which a beginner or intermediate pianist would definately not understand. On the other hand for the college bound pianist or high level piano teacher, this book is a gold mine

Rating:
Summary: Mandatory for advanced pianists!!
Review: This is a fantastic book in every sense of the word. The way Gerig written it is very great in itself in that it presents the piano from a historical view as well as purely technical one. So not only does it enhances the inquiring musician's mind in the technical methods,employed by the masters of the past centuries,but it gives practical technical and practice tips which show immediate improvements. I give it four stars because it is somewhat tedious to read. Perhaps it only seems that way because I devoured half of it in three days.