The Piano Master Classes of Hans von Bulow (Signed copy

Signed by Richard Louis Zimdars to pianist Alexander Kelly and his cellist wife Margaret Moncrieff

Author

Richard Louis Zimdars, translator & editor

Publisher

Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1993

The Piano Master Classes of Hans von Bulow (Signed copy

Printing Details

First edition, first printing. Hardback in dustwrapper. 26 × 18.5cm, 180pp.

This copy has been signed in a warm personal style by Richard and his wife, Paula, to British pianist Alexander Kelly and his wife Margaret. Alexander Kelly (1929–1996), pianist and professor at the Royal College of Music. He gave his debut under Sir Thomas Beecham, and as a teacher his pupils included Peter Jacobs, David Owen Norris, Iain Burnside, and Jonathan Plowright. He married cellist Margaret Moncrieff, who also wrote two novels for the Chalet School series under the name Helen McClelland.

The renowned concert pianist and teacher Hans von Bulow gave a series of piano master classes in the summers of 1884–1887. Detailed notes of the lessons by Theodor Pfeiffer, entitled "Studien bei Hans von Bylow", were published around the turn of the century along with a "Nachtrag" (Supplement) by Jose Vianna da Motta. In the classes, students played compositions by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Raff, Liszt, and Brahms, and Bylow pointed out special techniques and effects that apply to specific measures in the pieces. His remarks ranged from the brilliant to the hilarious, including, regrettably, some insulting comments about women. Richard Zimdars has rendered Pfeiffer's and da Motta's often cryptic notes into fully understandable instructions and has transcribed the more than 250 musical examples in the original volume. Particularly valuable is an appendix containing finger exercises from a contemporaneous book by Pfeiffer, now long out of print. Bulow's teaching, which is in the Liszt tradition, is as vital today as it was more than one hundred years ago. Students, performers, and teachers have much to learn from his high standards and artistic insight.