Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau: A Guide to His Philosophy and Techniques - Tapa dura

This engaging book is of indispensable importance to students and professionals. It clarifies the development of the physical approach to the keyboard and the musical demands imposed by the evolution of the instrument. Using countless valuable references and details never before seen in one publication, Victoria von Arx documents Claudio Arrau's teachings and his use of the body in a natural way without ever losing musical depth. (DLMaestro German Diez)

In this well-researched and important book, Victoria von Arx illustrates the teaching legacy of Claudio Arrau, capturing the great inspiration as well as the precise technical instruction communicated by this giant of the piano. (DLEna Bronstein Barton, Westminster College of the Arts, Rider University)

...A much-deserved, revealing tribute. (Internationa Piano)

Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was a Chilean pianist who devoted his life to an international performing and teaching career. As a child prodigy, he gained national recognition from government officials in Chile, including President Pedro Montt, who later funded Arrau's education in Germany. He completed his studies in Berlin with Martin Krause, a pupil of Franz Liszt, and later immigrated to New York City, where he began his teaching career and mentored a sizeable group of pupils. His unique and magnetic style impassioned his pupils and motivated them to teach his principles to the next generation of students, including author Victoria von Arx.

Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau highlights interviews with Arrau's surviving pupils (from his class in New York City, which he taught from 1945 to the early 1970s) that give readers an in-depth description of Arrau's principles of technique and performance. Quotations and lesson transcripts make Arrau's voice - and those of his former pupils - audible, and detailed references to over one hundred examples from filmed recordings make his famed technique visible. The bulk of the book features edited and previously-unpublished transcriptions of lessons Arrau gave his pupils, lavishly illustrated with musical examples. The author, herself a teacher and performer, draws information from numerous interviews with Arrau's pupils, from her experience studying with two of them, from videos of Arrau's performances, and from the recorded lessons. By culling these disparate sources of information and presenting them systematically in a single book, von Arx provides an insider's view of the art of piano playing as exemplified by one of the great artists of the twentieth century and offers the reader a virtual piano lesson with Claudio Arrau.