Thanks for your excellent book. Every paragraph, sentence captures my interest when I first take a look at some preview pages. I admit that your newly revised book is well formatted, much easier to read, indeed. Yet, the content is of top importance. Thank you so much. What a great research and discovery!

I also made purchase of your DVD recently after viewing the excerpts. I would say "That is Chopin's playing!" Your playing is what I expect for his music. I was lucky to be exposed to recordings from pianists who devoted to studying Chopin's authentic style of playing at very young age - those that execute what Chopin intended. I am very happy to find you among them, admirable!

I have read many books about Chopin's life, playing style as well as analysis of his works by those such as John Rink, Jim Samson. Of course, I have to read them over and over and need time to digest. Your book is of different approach and certainly a very good resource for me to learn and play.

Khoa Do, Sydney
Co-creator, with Anh Tran, administrator, of Chopin website http://www.ourchopin.com. We both love Chopin so much that we create this website to give Chopin's fan access to Chopin's life and music, especially his complete works in .mp3 files and scores.

Genius of the Piano is really amazingly complete. It is a very unique work and a real "page turner" as the annoying saying goes.

The way you create the Paris of Chopin's period is very clever and quite hypnotic. Even those who had never heard of that time would catch on to it. You have found an excellent balance in giving all the information without patronizing the reader. That is so important and you do it very well. I really like the way the info and the personalities weave in and out very seamlessly, and even I can't tell where the various elements came from.

Juliette de Marcellus
Author, journalist, music critic, pianist
Palm Beach, Florida & London

Wow!!! Thank you so much for Genius of the Piano. You write so convincingly about the milieu in which your subjects live and their idiosyncrasies, you really make them come alive! It's like receiving a crash course in European culture. The writing is so engaging and enjoyable. I'm very excited about reading the book again, which I cannot resist. Thank you again!

Sarah Biron
Music lover, Melbourne, Australia

It was a great pleasure to see excerpts of Alan's DVD on YouTube. Alan is a great pianist and scholar. He is truly one of the greatest Chopinists ever.

Dr. Yaroslav Senyshyn
Professor, Faculty of Education
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
http://www.educ.sfu.ca/research/senyshyn/

"We must endeavour to keep the hand in that (natural) position at all times, moving it along quickly and easily to the next position – 'displacing' it from one group of notes to the next. That is one of the basic secrets of piano technique"

I instantly went to my piano and tried Chopin's # 1 Etude in C major using this displacing of 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. God must have spoken to you when you discovered this phenomenon. My gratitude to you is INFINITE. I cannot wait to read the rest of the advice you have in your book on piano technique.

Since I am a physician (neonatologist), your applying anatomy and physiology to explaining piano technique is a total BLESSING: It makes the principle easy to understand.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, DEAR ALAN…
Sincerely
ZU (Zuhair)

P.S. "Displacement", among other things I learnt from your book WORKS, every time – thanks. zu

Zuhair Bakdoud
Physician, Washington, D.C, U.S.A.