Bartok and the Piano: a Performer's View.

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 roots, Nissman includes discussion of his childhood piano study, his early teachers and their influence, the composers he studied and admired throughout his life, facets of his own technical prowess at the keyboard, the impact of his various roles outside of composing (for example, teacher, theorist, musicologist, music editor and so forth) and his passion for his folk heritage.

What makes this book such a treasure-trove are Nissman's insights into the music from a performer's point of view. The typical format of her approach includes discussion of background elements and influences; analysis of form and structure; investigation of pianistic demands; and consideration of the musical elements. Ample score examples are given for illustration. Nissman generously shares her suggestions for performance and pertinent additional repertoire (by other composers) to explore.

Nissman seeks to equip the reader with as much information as possible, including in the final chapter impressions and remembrances of Bartok as a pianist; a discography of recordings of his own playing; and a listing of his completed piano works and his other major works in chronological relation to the piano repertoire. A CD of selections from Bartok's oeuvre performed by the author is attached within the back cover. This book would be an outstanding acquisition for music libraries and is worthy of inclusion in pianists' personal resource collections.

Virginia Houser, Manhattan, Kansas.