PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Jeremy Denk has been acclaimed both as one of America's foremost pianists and as a writer about music. Winner of a MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowship for his playing and his writing, Denk has appeared with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony, among others. He has also performed multiple times in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, the Wigmore Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. He regularly collaborates with the violinist Joshua Bell and the cellist Steven Isserlis, while his writing has appeared in the Guardian, the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. He lives in New York, sometimes.
Denk . . . has written a book that shows what it's like to be a pianist, but also what it's like to be Jeremy Denk. As if that were not enough, it is also about the elements of music, and beyond that an account of the ways in which music and life mirror each other. It is a book like none other. -- Simon Callow * New York Review of Books * A treasure . . . Denk addresses quite complex issues with extraordinary clarity, illustrating musical points with (frequently very witty) similes and metaphors. He informs, reminisces and entertains in equal measure. -- Steven Isserlis Wonderful . . . a lesson for the reader in how to listen with more care and wonder to what's behind the notes we hear. It also makes a strong case for why classical music, with its beauty and ecstasy, matters more than ever. -- Stephen Hough Jeremy Denk really is that rarest of finds . . . An absolute must read for beginners and experts alike who wish to further explore the soul of the greatest music ever written in the company of a fine and virtuoso guide. -- Edward Docx A love letter to the art of paying deep attention. -- Susan Tomes A one-of-a-kind musical autobiography by one of our most brilliant and perceptive classical musicians. -- John Adams, composer of Nixon in China Among the many virtues of this funny and moving book - its frankness, its generous preservation of wisdom from mentors past, its breathtaking insights about how and why music affects us - one stands out above the rest: it makes me want to practice. -- Conrad Tao Sometimes you read the first paragraph and know you'll read to the end. They say writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Jeremy Denk's book reminds us that dancing about architecture sounds sort of great. -- John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of <i>Pulphead</i> Jeremy Denk's writing is as engaged and probing as his playing. Every Good Boy Does Fine hits the spot - a scintillating account of his way into music. -- <span>Ian Bostridge</span> Like Bach . . . Denk knows how to spin rich counterpoint out of multiple lines. And like Mozart . . . Denk knows how to make art out of 'a love for the steps, the joys of growing and outgrowing and being outgrown'. * New York Times * Denk . . . has thought deeply and creatively about what a memoir is, and how to write it. By turns hilarious, original, and painfully revealing, Every Good Boy Does Fine is both an open-hearted coming-of-age story and a meditation on music's inner secrets . . . Denk . . . is a dizzyingly inventive writer . . . That inventiveness is evident in the book's conceit - its use of the piano lesson as the vehicle with which to tell his story. * Boston Globe *
