After his escape from Hungary during the Revolt, Verga Caszar seeks to find freedom as a nomad, eventually wandering through the halls of the Akademischer Musikverein, a music school in Graz. His musical talent sends him to Vienna to compete in the Young Pianist International Talent Competition, where he experiences his first taste of true love and true vengeance. Verga must decide what he wants more: his dream of becoming a famous pianist or the well-being of his lover; but what happens when he isnt given the opportunity to choose? Verga finds himself in another desperate escape plan reminiscent of his fleeing from his home country, this time to America, the melting pot of freedom and democracy. In a nation founded on choices, Verga will have to comply, discovering a world and a direction he has never expected, a reevaluation of prior passions and affections.

Liszt's B minor Sonata is now regarded as his finest work for piano, and one of the pinnacles of Romantic piano music. This handbook opens with a survey of Liszt's early attempts at sonata composition - which include some well-known pieces that, hitherto, have been unrecognised as sonata forms - and clears away some of the persistent myths regarding programme music in Liszt's output. In the central chapters, built around an analysis of the B minor Sonata, Kenneth Hamilton discusses various interpretative approaches, arguing that the contradictory writings on the subject stem from the deliberate formal ambiguity of the piece itself - one reason for its perennial fascination, perhaps. The book concludes with a chapter on the performance practice and the performing history of the work, which should be of particular interest to pianists.

Publisher Description

A fully illustrated oral history of the Magnetic Fields' 1999 triple album, 69 Love Songs - an album that was afforded "classic" status by many almost as soon as it was released. LD Beghtol's book is chatty, incestuous, funny, dark, digressive, sexy, maddening, and delightful in equal measures. It documents a vital and influential scene from the inside, involving ukuleles and tears, citations and footnotes, analogue drum machines, and floods of cognac. Oh, and a crossword puzzle too. The centre of the book is the secret history of these tuneful, acerbic, and sometimes heartbreaking songs of old love, new love, lost love, punk rock love, gay love, straight love, experimental music love, true love, blue love, and the utter lack of love that fill the album - as told by participants, fans, imitators, naysayers, and others. Also included are a lexicon of words culled from the album's lyrics, recording details, performance notes from the full album shows in New York, Boston and London, plus rare and unpublished images, personal memorabilia, and much much more.