" -Richard GoodeThis collection provides elegant and thorough portraits of an important 20th-century performer and lover of music, as well as of his greatest influences.

Contents (as printed in first-edition book from Greenwood Press)
Prologue, Leon Fleisher
Foreword, Russell Sherman
Preface
Acknowledgements
Biographical Sketch
Part I: Composers
Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Bach (1685-1750)
His Last Work
Spirit, Style, and Forms
Bach-Reger
Brandenburg Concertos for Piano Duet
Mozart (1756-1791)
Quintet in D Major, K. 593
Beethoven (1770-1827)
Several Perspectives
Mostly Beethoven
On Beethoven's Trills
Bagatelles, Op. 119
The Ninth Symphony, Op. 125
Schubert (1797-1828)
Schubert's Reaction to Beethoven
Schubert's "L'istesso Tempo"
Schubert's String Quintet in C: A Misplaced Repeat Sign?
Schumann (1810-1856)
On Titles and Verbal Descriptions in Music
Liszt (1811-1886)
Beethovenian Dissonances in Liszt's Piano Works
Liszt's Approach to Piano Technique
Stravinsky
A Modern Faust
Part II: Letters
From:
Paul Badura-Skoda; Review of Interpretation on the Piano - What We can Learn from Schnabel
Alfred Brendel
Paul Henry Lang
Rudof Serkin
To:
Leon Fleisher
Artur Schnabel
To and From:
A Colleague
Sviatoslav Richter
Part III: Miscellany
Christmas Music
Music Appreciation
Authenticity
The Beginnings of Cyclic Form
Bach's Dedication to King Frederick
August Halm
Observations
On Teaching
On Music an Musicians
A Lesson in Writing
Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782): Siciliano in F-Sharp Minor
Part IV: The Brendel-Wolff "Debate"
The "Debate"
Addendum by Alfred Brendel
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
A photographic essay follows

Ruth Gillen is a pianist who studied with the duo-pianists Vronsky and Babin, as well as with Konrad Wolff.