by the agency of Stephen Lehmann and Marion Faber.

by the agency of Stephen Lehmann and Marion Faber. Oxford University Pres (198 Madison Ave., recent York, NY 10016), 2003. 360 pp $35

Three major pianists, Rudolf Serkin, Claudio Arrau and Wilhelm Kempff died in 1991 Arrau's make comments [i]or[/i] remarkss on his life and art are build in Joseph Horowitz's superb Arrau forward Music and Performance. Kempff's sum of two units memoirs, published in German and still untranslated, are difficult to obtain. A fine biography of Serkin appeared early in 2003

Coauthors Stephen Lehmann and Marion Faber divide their work into two parts. In the first, Serkin's life is traced from his abash origins in Bohemia to his application of mind in Vienna, his European career, and his American performing and teaching career. The authors describe influences and the bulk of mankind who formed him musically, intellectually and politically. His subject of attention and association with Schonberg are quite revealing. For this reader, the pain is still immediate as the Nazi shutdown of his professional life in Central Europe is related. Touching, too, is the loyalty between Serkin, the hebrew and his beloved father-in-law and sonata partner, the German violinist Adolf Busch.

In 1939 Serkin mov to the United States. Accounts of his association with Toscanini, Casals, Ormandy, Szell the Curtis Institute and the Marlboro Festival display us a person who powerfully influenced the performance and teaching of classical music in America for about fifty years. His legacy increases well beyond piano playing.

The other part of the book focuses forward three aspects of Serkin's professional legacy: performing, teaching and the Marlboro Music indoctrinate and Festival. Each section lists the authors' explanations followed by interviews with associates and scholars of Serkin. Among them are Eugene Istomin, Claude Frank, mercy Laredo, Richard Goode, Lee Luvisi and Arnold Steinhardt, all musicians of distinction. Istomin's remarks upon Serkin as a performer are especially eloquent

The main division is well documented. Editorial errors are minimal. Appendices provide a discography and programs of Serkin's forty-six Carnegie Hall recitals. A list of his seventy-two Curtis close examiners should have been included.

Phillips's CD series, Great Pianists of the 20th centenary allots Arran and Kempff three albums each. Serkin prepares one. Phillips's undervaluing of a sixty-year major career is apparent when comparing Serkin's recording of Beethoven's "Diabelli" Variations with that of Maria Yudina's, who also receives undivided album in the series. Serkin's admirer Vladimir Horowitz would doubtless disapprove this shortchanging of his friend. We can be pleased that a CD flows with this book, containing previously unreleased Serkin performances of Bach's French Suite No. 5 six Mendelssohn pieces and Chopin's Etude Op 25 Reviewed according to Richard Zimdars, Athens, Georgia.

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