Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing - Hardcover

Peres Da Costa, Neal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195386914 ISBN 13: 9780195386912

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Off the Record is a revealing exploration of piano performing practices of the high Romantic era. Author and well-known keyboard player Neal Peres Da Costa bases his investigation on a range of early sound recordings (acoustic, piano roll and electric) that capture a generation of highly-esteemed pianists trained as far back as the mid-nineteenth-century. Placing general practices of late nineteenth-century piano performance alongside evidence of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of legendary pianists such as Carl Reinecke (1824-1910), Theodor Leschetizky (1830-1915), Camille Saint-Saëns (1838-1921) and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), he examines prevalent techniques of the time--dislocation, unnotated arpeggiation, rhythmic alteration, tempo fluctuation--and unfolds the background and lineage of significant performer/pedagogues. Throughout, Peres Da Costa demonstrates that these early recordings do not simply capture the idiosyncrasies of aging musicians as has been commonly asserted, but in fact represent a range of established expressive practices of a lost age.

An extensive collection of these fascinating and sometimes rare professional recordings of the Romantic age masters are available on a companion web site, and in addition, Peres Da Costa, himself a renowned period keyboardist, illustrates points made throughout the book with his own playing. Of essential value to student and professional pianists, historical musicologists of 19th and early 20th century performance practice, and also to the general music aficionado audience, Off the Record is an indispensable resource for scholarly research, performance inspiration, and listening enjoyment.

About this title

About the Author

Neal Peres da Costa is Associate Professor and Chair of Early Music Unit, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney; he is a renowned performer of Early Music and 17th-19th century historical keyboard instruments.

Review

"Engaging and thought provoking...An outstanding contribution to the discussion of how Romantic piano music might be performed...No serious teacher, performer (or critic) of the Romantic piano literature should be without this book. In questioning old assumptions and presenting a wealth of historical information, it will make you play and listen with new ears." --Limelight Magazine (Australia)

"The section on unnotated arpeggiation (with its oral tradition extending back to Bach) is
particularly fascinating; pianists performing Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms may find this discussion liberating. Via audio examples on the companion website the author reveals how his research has affected his own keyboard playing...Recommended." --Choice

"A very welcome and important addition to our understanding of how pianists of an earlier generation performed nineteenth century romantic piano repertoire." --ARSC Journal

"[Peres da Costa] has read everything, listened to everything and marshalled it into a well-written and logically organised narrative. His range of references is highly impressive. He has provided pianophiles with some thought-provoking questions." --Gramophone

"An extremely welcome addition to the bookshelves of every performing musician, teacher, musicologist and music professional...It will bring fresh inspiration and a whole new
expressive palette to the interpreters of nineteenth-century works." --The Pianola Journal

"Excellent." --Alex Ross, TheRestIsNoise.com

"Da Costa's book is ground-breaking: 'authenticity' is only reached by taking the score with a grain of salt and diving into the spontaneous creativity of the pre-war style." --NRC Handelsblad

"...engagingly accessible questioning of modern historicist practices... will undoubtedly inspire legions of pianists looking to rethink their approaches to nineteenth-century repertoires." --Context

"...offers thorough and detailed research on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century piano performance practice." --19th-Century Music Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0195386914
• ISBN 13: 9780195386912
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 378