The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and the Eight - Paperback

by Robert Rimm (Author)

In The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and The Eight, Robert Rimm writes about eight legendary, enigmatic, and interrelated composer-pianists of the instrument's golden age and goes on to consider their present-day advocate and astounding interpreter Marc-André Hamelin, whose dynamic playing and engaging personality immediately impressed Rimm upon their first encounter. Rimm portrays The Eight (Alkan, Busoni, Feinberg, Godowsky, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Sorabji) as the piano's aural sensualists and explores the relationships among their music, their music-making, their ideas, and their lives.

Author Biography

As a child, Robert Rimm found a collection of AlkanÆs sheet music and played several of his shorter pieces. This discovery began his journey of musical explorationùAlkan led to Busoni, who led to Godowsky, which unearthed a Rachmaninov connectionùin this way, over many years, Rimm gradually researched each of The Eight. In addition to undertaking this personal project, Rimm attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He later studied at the Main Line Conservatory of Music, working in-depth with musical theory, particularly exploring the combination of music and language. Today, Rimm combines the disciplines of music and language as educator, writer, pianist, lecturer and translator. He has written for _Piano & Keyboard_, _Fanfare_, _International Piano_, and Dover Publications, and provides program annotations for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and others. Among his forthcoming projects is a translation of Samuel Feinberg's _Pianism as Art_. He teaches at Chronos Studios in Philadelphia.Rimm is active in several organizations serving the blind community, and often performs benefit concerts for charitable groups. As one might expect, he is an avid record-collector and concert-goer. He also enjoys running and traveling. Robert Rimm resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.