Virtuosi (e-book) (used book) | Mark Mitchell | bookbook.eu

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"Vigorous, opinionated, and always entertaining, hereis a personal essayist of great charm and sincerity. Mitchell's erudition -- hiscollection of odd and illuminating bits of knowledge -- is always a delight and addsa sauce piquanteto the whole dish " -- Edmund White

..".a literarywork of real lan, vibrancy, and grace -- the very qualities that in his viewdefine the virtuoso. Mr. Mitchell explores] the traditional linking of musical andsexual virtuosity, the ethical implications of the original instruments' movement, the near deification of Mozart in Anglo-Saxon culture, and, in a particularly wittysection, the relationship of the virtuoso to his stool. Throughout, Mr. Mitchell'sprose is humorous, intimate, and unapologeticaly polemical." -- CynthiaOzick

The artistic merit of performers with superior technique haslong been almost ipso facto denied. At last, Mark Mitchell launches a counterattack.In essays crackling with pianistic lore, Mitchell takes on topics such as encores, prodigies, competitions, virtuosi in film and literature, and the erotics of musicalperformance. Liszt, Horowitz, and Argerich share these pages with the eccentricPachmann, Ervin Nyiregyh ("the skid-row pianist"), and Liberace. The illustrationsinclude rare portraits of long-forgotten girl prodigies, historic concert programs, and stills from a lost 1927 film on Beethoven. Punctuating this celebration ofpersonal voice are vignettes, running from the beginnings of the author's obsessionwith the piano to the particularities of concert-going in Italy (where he nowlives).

Mark Mitchell's piano studies led to a friendship withVladimir Horowitz and other pianistic luminaries. With David Leavitt he co-authoredItalian Pleasures and co-edited Pages Passed from Hand to Hand. He also edited ThePenguin Book of International Gay Writing.