Great Pianists on Piano Playing: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Great Pianists on Piano Playing, credited to James Francis Cooke, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Great Pianists on Piano Playing by James Francis Cooke. Read in English by LibriVox Volunteers. The full title of this book, published in 1913, gives a good idea of its contents: “Great Pianists on Piano Playing: Study Talks with Foremost Virtuosos. A Series of Personal Educational Conferences with Renowned Masters of the Keyboard, Presenting the Most Modern Ideas upon the Subjects of Technic, Interpretation, Style and Expression.” The author, James Francis Cooke, in addition to publishing a dozen books, was involved in music in many ways, including as a composer, a music educator, the president of a music publishing house, and the editor of a music magazine. He taught piano for 20 years. For this book, he interviewed 19 accomplished pianists of his day, gleaning their wisdom about a large range of topics regarding piano performance. In addition, each section ends with a list of ten questions intended to encourage the student reader to think about and interpret the interviewee’s advice. - Summary by Verla Viera

Recording facts

• Recording title: Great Pianists on Piano Playing
• Author credits: James Francis Cooke
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 21
• Listed recording duration: 7:25:52

Catalogue topics

• music
• piano
• piano performance
• piano study
• pianists

Track guide

1. 01 - The Artist’s Life — 32:58
2. 02 - Are Pianists Born or Made? — 22:35
3. 03 - Pepito Arriola: The Story of a Wonder Child — 17:50
4. 04 - Wilhelm Bachaus: The Pianist of To-Morrow — 16:54
5. 05 - Harold Bauer: Artistic Aspects of Piano Study — 24:33
6. 06 - Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler: Appearing in Public — 24:32
7. 07 - Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni: Important Details in Piano Study — 19:47
8. 08 - Teresa Carreño: Distinctive Piano Playing — 21:00
9. 09 - Ossip Gabrilowitsch: Essentials of Touch — 16:23
10. 10 - Leopold Godowsky: The Real Significance of Technic — 16:24
11. 11 - Katharine Goodson: Analyzing Masterpieces — 16:36
12. 12 - Josef Hofmann: Progress in Piano Study — 20:44
13. 13 - Josef Lhévinne: Piano Study in Russia — 21:14
14. 14 - Vladimir de Pachmann: Seeking Originality — 25:24
15. 15 - Max Pauer: Modern Pianistic Problems — 18:47
16. 16 - S. V. Rachmaninoff: Essentials of Artistic Playing — 23:18
17. 17 - Alfred Reisenaur: Systematic Musical Training — 22:17
18. 18 - Emil Sauer: The Training of the Virtuoso — 25:34
19. 19 - Xaver Scharwenka: Economy in Music Study — 22:46
20. 20 - Ernest Schelling: Learning a New Piece — 20:12
21. 21 - Sigismund Stojowski: What Interpretation Really Is — 16:04

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.