Liszt's B minor Sonata is now regarded as his finest work for piano, and one of the pinnacles of Romantic piano music. This book, written by a pianist who has performed the Sonata extensively, includes a survey of Liszt's early attempts at sonata composition and clears away some of the persisent myths regarding program music in Liszt's output. The central chapters, built around an analysis of the B minor Sonata, discuss various interpretative approaches, while the concluding chapter treats the performance practice and performing history of the work. This is the first book to elucidate this...

Although the music of Franz Liszt is becoming ever more popular in the concert-hall and the subject of much recent research, there are few books available for a general reader that present up-to-date scholarship on the composer. Written by leading specialists in the field, this Companion provides an authoritative overview of Liszt's music, its context and performance practice.

Kenneth Hamilton's book engagingly and lucidly dissects the oft-invoked myth of a Great Tradition, or Golden Age of Pianism. It is written both for players and for members of their audiences by a pianist who believes that scholarship and readability can go hand-in-hand. Hamilton discusses in meticulous yet lively detail the performance-style of great pianists from Liszt to Paderewski, and delves into the far-from-inevitable development of the piano recital. He entertainingly recounts how classical concerts evolved from exuberant, sometimes riotous events into the formal, funereal trotting out...