Walking up the Mountain Track

  • Walkink up the mountain tracka young musicians captivating search
  • 350+ quotes on musicianship, art and Zen
  • a speech from Joyce DiDonato, a message from Gary Peacock
  • 12 interviews: Kit Armstrong, Alfred Brendel, Daniele Gatti, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Hélène Grimaud, Nelson Goerner, Janine Jansen, Julien Libeer, Christa Ludwig, Maria João Pires, Roberto Prosseda, Carina Vinke

Agreeable Place Publications
ISBN 9789082747904

488 pages, illustrated
€ 29,90 paperback, excl. shipping
€ 14,90 E-book

‘Going up a mountain track, I fell to thinking. Approach everything rationally, and you become harsh. Pole along in the stream of emotions, and you will be swept away by the current. Give free rein to your desires, and you become uncomfortably confined…’ Walking up the Mountain Track is inspired by these opening lines from Natsume Soseki’s The Three-Cornered World – Glenn Gould’s favourite novel – and this idea, also expressed by Dinu Lipatti in a letter, helps Benjamin in his search for artistic truth. His conversations with Zen master Sato alternate with scenes from the lives of legendary musicians, e.g. Gould, Lipatti, Celibidache, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Arrau and Menuhin, each contemplating on the wisdom and meaning of Zen for the musician.