Books by Charles Rosen

The Joy of Playing, the Joy of Thinking brings together two sensitive minds in an exhilarating conversation on the arts. Charles Rosen, concert pianist and pioneering musicologist, and writer Catherine Temerson range widely-from musical aesthetics to tales of the great composers, the development of modernism, and the need to play.

A guide to the piano sonatas of Beethoven. Charles Rosen places the works in context and provides an understanding of the formal principles involved in interpreting and performing this unique repertoire. He also looks at the sonatas individually. There is a free CD of extracts from the sonatas.

This book brings together many of the essays that have established Rosen as one of the most influential and eloquent voices in the field of music in our time. They cover a broad range of musical forms, historical periods, and issues, offering enlightenment on subjects as diverse as music dictionaries and the aesthetics of stage fright.

Charles Rosen gives us a performance of literary criticism as high art, a critical conjuring of the Romantic period by way of some of its central texts. Throughout this volume we hear the voice of a shrewd aesthetic interpreter, performing the critic's task even as he redefines it in his sparkling fashion.

In the book, Rosen concentrates on the three major figures of the time - Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven - because 'it is in terms of their achievements that the musical vernacular can best be defined'. In this expanded edition, Rosen follows the development of each composer's best known genres: for Haydn, the symphony and string quartet;

Originally the content of three lectures, this work offers a bold and inspiring study of music, as text, as performance, and as a listening experience.

In this eloquent, intimate exploration of the delights and demands of the piano, world-renowned concert pianist and music writer Charles Rosen draws on a lifetime's wisdom to consider every aspect of the instrument: from what makes a beautiful sound to suffering from stage fright, from the physical challenges of playing to tales of great musicians, including Vladimir Horowitz's recording tricks, Rachmaninov's hands and why Artur Rubenstein applied hairspray to the keys. Gracefully blending anecdote, history, expertise and memoir, Piano Notes will enchant anyone with a passion for music.