When I first started collecting records, Harold C Schonberg’s book The Great Pianists was my training manual. I dutifully read through it (more than once), making a list of names of pianists he recommended and revisiting his beautiful descriptions of their playing. In my regular jaunts to second-hand stores in my hometown of Montreal, I […]

The French pianist and pedagogue Marguerite Long was born on November 13, 1874. Over the course of her 91 years, she would become among the most prominent pianists and teachers of her generation. Long’s elder sister Claire had a great influence on Marguerite. In 1883, Claire became Professor of Piano at the Nîmes conservatory and […]

I was delighted to be asked to write the booklet text for yet another superb release on the magnificent Eloquence label: a 21-CD set featuring an array of 1950s & 60s recordings by a range of great pianists from several generations. Several of these pianists are very dear to my heart, while others I have […]