Bartok and the Piano: a Performer's View.(Book Review)(Brief Article)

by Barbara Nissman. Scarecrow Press (4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706), 2002. 319 pp., $49.50.

Whether you are a pianist who performs and teaches Bela Bartok's music or simply a lover of piano music, you will find this book a valuable new resource.

In the process of preparing Bartok's piano music for recording, pianist and performer Barbara Nissman became aware of the shortage of writings about Bartok's works from the pianist's perspective. This surprised her because he was first and foremost a formidable pianist and "probably at his most adventurous and most natural self when composing for the keyboard."

Nissman concentrates on Bartok's major piano works, with separate chapters devoted to in-depth study of the Sonata (1926), the Out of Door suite and the three piano concertos. Within other chapters she also discusses more generally the smaller-scale works. Her decision to focus on standard works for the advanced pianist precluded writing about more than a few pieces from Mikrokosmos. Nissman also discusses the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937) and briefly surveys the other chamber repertoire.

Nissman's informed and straightforward writing offers a useful gamut of information and ideas pertinent to this repertoire. She originally conceived the book chronologically but discarded that idea after discovering that the influences on Bartok's creativity did not follow that linear path. In her exploration of the composer's creative ...