Landowska on Music. Collected, Edited, and Translated by Denise Restout. Assisted by Robert Hawkins.

Octavo, softbound (stiff, photo. illustrated slick wrappers), 438 pp. Very Good, with light edgewear. From lower cover: The idea of having all her notes and writingts on muysic collected in one volume had long been a cherished wish of Landowska's and when, shortly before her death, she delegated this formidable yet delicate task to Denise Restout, she could not have made a more fortunate choice. Not only has Miss Restout had access to all the material -- having been for 26 years a member of Landowska's household, first as pupil, then as secretary, assistant and companion -- but she has shown a rare ability to create, from what were often only fragments, a vivid and homogeneous picture of one of the greatest and most controversial musical figures of her time; one who counted scores of fanatical adorers in every country she visited, but also many detractors. These, oddly enough, fell into two opposing groups: those who found her playing too dry and metronomic and those who criticised her flamboyance and unwarranted liberties of interpretation. And so there grew up, even in Landowska's lifetime, a vague mystique surrounding her life and ideas, which needed just such a clearing of the air as Denise Restout has achieved by her objective use of all the facts. Adopting the attitude neither of adorer nor detractor, she has brought order and clarity into a mass of unconected material without ever losing sight of the warm and vitality of her subject. Music, Culture, Performing Arts xslic.…