RECENT RELEASES

Books, paintings and music at a writers' event,
reviewed by ANNA FRANCO

On 1 February 2006, Barnes & Noble Books (near Lincoln Center, NY, USA) held a very elegant Writers' Event at which Henry Z Steinway and David Dubal discussed two recent releases: People and Pianos by Theodore E Steinway; and The Steinway Collection: Paintings of Great Composers with Essays by James Huneker, by Henry Steinway, both published by Amadeus Press. Throughout the evening, Juilliard students performed on a Steinway piano, and there was a book signing afterward.

David Dubal, who wrote the Foreward to The Steinway Collection, calls James Huneker, 'a critic of genius, a writer of the seven arts'. 'There needs to be a Huneker revival ...', he writes. Huneker's essays on the collection were commissioned by Steinway & Sons in 1919. In his first essay, appropriately called Prelude, Huneker wrote: 'Walter Pater was perfectly justified when he described music as an art to which other arts aspire.'

During the event, Henry Steinway told anecdotes based on his memories of his family and the history of Steinway & Sons. The magic of the Steinway was expressed that evening in a première of the song: To Henry Z Steinway, composed earlier that day by a Juilliard student. Throughout the discussion were other piano performances by music students.

Continue >>