Rudolf Serkin: A Life
Researched Bibliographic Dossier
Verified edition data and a musicological research note prepared specifically for this work.
- Title
- Rudolf Serkin: A Life
- Authors
- Stephen Lehmann and Marion Faber
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Place
- Oxford and New York
- Year
- 2003
- Extent
- xiv + 344 pages; illustrated; accompanying audio CD
- ISBN
- 9780195130461
- Online ISBN
- 9780199849499
- Language
- English
- Type
- Documentary biography / performance history
SCOPE & CONTENT
Lehmann and Faber produced the first full biography of Rudolf Serkin, reconstructing a deliberately private artist through personal papers, correspondence and extensive testimony from family, colleagues and pupils. The narrative follows Serkin from Eger and Vienna through his integration into the Busch circle, his emergence as an international pianist and his emigration to the United States. It then broadens from chronology into three major areas: performing, teaching, and the creation of a durable musical culture around the Curtis Institute and the Marlboro Music School and Festival.
RESEARCH VALUE
For performance history, the book is unusually valuable because it treats Serkin not only as a touring virtuoso but as a carrier of Austro-German musical values into mid-twentieth-century American institutions. It discusses his Beethoven-centered reputation without reducing his repertory to Beethoven, and gives sustained attention to chamber music, pedagogy, rehearsal culture and institutional leadership. A discography by Paul Farber and the accompanying recordings reinforce its documentary character. The volume is therefore a central source for research on Serkin, Marlboro, Curtis and the transmission of European performance traditions in the United States.
- Format
- File size
- 5.7 MB
- Subjects / people
- Books & Essays · Biographies & Monographs
- Catalogue completeness
- 8 / 10 core bibliographic fields