History Quote by Stuart Isacoff

“Peterson revealed that he had decided the only way to get attention was “to frighten the hell out of everybody pianistically.”

— Stuart Isacoff

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can pick up their heads…

— Donal Henahan

“There I was, listening to four students play something that had been written in another time in another country and it seemed like nothing…

— Harry Cauley

[Rubinstein was] a fountain from which music spouted, not a recitalist.

— Donal Henahan

“Ah, this is more like it. Tchaikovsky,” said Aziraphale, opening a case and slotting its cassette into the Blaupunkt. “You won’t enjoy it,” sighed…

— Terry Pratchett

“Concert pianists get to be quite chummy with dead composers. They can't help it. Classical music isn't just music . It's a personal diary.…

— Marisha Pessl

Tchaikovsky was one of the great melody writers of all time.

— James Newton Howard

“It was clear that the composer no longer consoled himself with the thought that music could express everything and did not require verbal commentary.”

— Solomon Volkov

I studied with Felix Blumenfeld, who had studied piano with Anton Rubinstein and composition with Tchaikovsky. Felix, my professor, was the right hand of…

— Vladimir Horowitz

“He had always wanted to write music, and he could give no other identity to the thing he sought. If you want to know…

— Ayn Rand

Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.

— Chuck Berry

“I looked at the headline: “The Devil Made Him Do It." It was an opinion piece about the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and the…

— Supervert