 A book about Frederic Chopin for everyone |
 A virtual compendium of piano technique |
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“Genius of the Piano is amazingly complete. It is a very unique work and a real ‘page turner’, as the saying goes. The way it creates the Paris of Chopin's period is very clever and quite hypnotic. An excellent balance - I really like the way the way the information and the personalities weave in and out very seamlessly.”
Juliette de Marcellus
'I instantly went to my piano and tried Chopin's first Etude using this principle of displacing the hand to the next position without stretching: It was a MIRACLE!!!!!!!! It worked like a DREAM: no tension, no stiffening, no tiring of my hand. It felt so easy, so non-straining. I could go on playing the piano using this principle for ever without feeling any stiffening, etc. Since I am a physician, your applying anatomy and physiology to explaining piano technique is a total BLESSING: it makes the principle easy to understand.'
Zuhair Bakdoud
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A unique book about the art of the piano, with Frederic Chopin and his landmark series of 'Etudes' at its heart. Kogosowski gives a complete explanation of how the piano is REALLY played, in a clear exposition rarely ever accomplished. The subject is approached from the wider physiological angle, explaining in detail how the hands actually work. This information is of vital importance because of the prevalence of RSI and Carpal Tunnel problems among pianists, as well as an ever-growing number of people because of the constant use of computers.
This hugely important subject is addressed in the context of the history and world of piano performing. The book is also a new 'take' on the life of Frederic Chopin. Instead of detailing the chronological facts of his life, the reader is taken on a journey, one in which he travels in Chopin's shoes, seeing the world through his eyes - not just emotionally, socially and politically, but how the history of music and the whole culture of Europe appeared to him. It is a biography told 'from the inside out', so to speak - starting with the music and how it is played, and explaining everything through that (and is that not the real way to tell the life of an artist?).
With a wealth of lively anecdote as well as essential practical information, 'Genius of the Piano' is a book one can dip into at any point (or just read the helpfully detailed index for fun). Each of the twelve chapters is self - contained, covering a different area of music and culture, including the development of the piano, opera, virtuoso instrumentalists, the symphony orchestra, literature and painting, the philosophy of Romanticism, the history of piano pedagogy, etc. The unifying human thread is Frederic Chopin, and the practical one his 'Etudes'. |
