Vladimir de Pachmann
Subtitle: A Piano Virtuoso's Life and Art.
Publisher: See notes
Published: 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 231
ISBN-13: 9780253341693
First sentence: The year 1848 was the most tumultuous of the nineteenth century: In January, a popular rebellion in Sicily swept through the Kingdom of Naples; in February, Louis-Philippe ("The Citizen King") abdicated in France and the Second Republic was proclaimed; in March, uprisings in Vienna forced Prince Klemens von Metternich, who had helped to form the alliance that defeated Napoleon, into exile.
Description: "Piano virtuoso Vladimir de Pachmann (1848-1933) is remembered today more often than not for the comic and sometimes bizarre on-stage behavior that earned him the epithet "Chopinzee." Yet during his years as a performer, Pachmann was regarded as one of the four or five greatest pianists in the world, and as the outstanding exponent of the music of Chopin.".

"Beginning with Pachmann's childhood in Odessa, Mitchell follows the process by which the youngest of thirteen children evolved into one of the finest - and most colorful - artists in the history of the piano, one who was able to fill London's Albert Hall for a recital.

Particular emphasis is placed on the two principal relationships of Pachmann's life: with the pianist Maggie Okey, to whom he was married for a decade, and with Francesco Pallottelli, the waiter-turned-impresario under whose influence he eventually settled in Fascist-era Italy."--BOOK JACKET.