Reviewed by: Josef Hofmann: The Piano's Forgotten Giant by Elizabeth Carr Donald Manildi Josef Hofmann: The Piano's Forgotten Giant. By Elizabeth Carr. Lanham, MD: Rowman ISBN 9781538183410 (ebook), 45. ] Illustrations, bibliography, index. This seriously flawed book is the first English-language treatment of the life and career of one of the most esteemed pianists of the twentieth century. Josef Hofmann (1876–1957), who was born near Kraków and studied initially with his father and then with Moritz Moszkowski. He later became the only private pupil of Russia's Anton Rubinstein. He began playing in public at the age of six and made his US debut at ten. He quickly attracted attention as a child prodigy of extraordinary ability but withdrew from the concert platform in 1888. Hofmann returned as a mature artist in 1894 and, after frequent international touring, eventually settled in the US. During the early decades of the twentieth century, Hofmann ranked with Sergei Rachmaninoff and Ignace Jan Paderewski for pianistic supremacy in the eyes of audiences and critics, although other eminent figures such as Leopold Godowsky, Moriz Rosenthal, Ignaz Friedman, and Josef Lhévinne had their avid followers. Hofmann pursued various musical and nonmusical paths during this time. He composed a substantial body of music for the piano (most of which was published) and, between 1927 and 1938, served as director of the newly founded Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he was responsible for a number of innovative ideas in music education. During his free time, Hofmann enjoyed tinkering in his workshop and became noted for various patented inventions dealing with automotive mechanics (including windshield wipers and air suspension) as well as piano tone and action. Hofmann continued concertizing for a decade after his departure from Curtis, but his late years were plagued by alcoholism and a host of personal difficulties. He then retired to southern California and became a virtual recluse. Author Elizabeth Carr, previously director of the Cape Cod Conservatory in Massachusetts, establishes as her premise that Hofmann has been somehow "forgotten. " This may have been true briefly during the 1950s, but the available evidence says otherwise. In fact, the published attention to Hofmann over the past fifty years or so (largely generated through the discovery and reissue of his recordings) has been remarkable. New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg, in his book The Great Pianists (New York: Simon rev. ed. , 1987), led the way to a great extent, while essays or reviews by other scholars of pianism like Jan Holcman, Rafael Kammerer, Harry L. Anderson, Frank Cooper, Gregor Benko, Ezra Rachlin, Charles Hopkins, and Peter Rabinowitz—not to mention Hofmann's pupil Abram Chasins— have substantially raised our awareness of Hofmann's stature in recent times. Carr, for her part, seems familiar with only a small portion of these post-1963 sources. Furthermore, the legacies of most of the "golden age" pianists of the early twentieth century (i. e. , Hofmann's contemporaries) have likewise become much more highly visible than previously. Carr's book covers Hofmann's life and musical pursuits in nineteen chapters. Several chapters are devoted to specific aspects in greater detail, such as his teaching, administrative work, compositions, and recordings. These are interspersed with an ongoing chronicle of his private life as well as his public career and its reception. The author has drawn upon archival material at the Curtis Institute and from Hofmann's long association End Page 708 with Steinway & Sons, while acknowledging the current inaccessibility of the contents of his estate. Carr does make considerable use of one book describing Hofmann's life during his first marriage (1905–27): The Amazing Marriage of Marie Eustis & Josef Hofmann by Nell S. Graydon and Margaret D. Sizemore (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1965). In her chronicle, however, Carr also relies on a great many tedious, verbatim, and often repetitious newspaper accounts, not all of which are properly sourced. In fact, she reveals overall an alarmingly casual handling of documentation, with many sources (over forty by my count) either incomplete, error ridden, or missing entirely. The text also abounds in misspellings and assorted. . .
Donald Manildi (Thu,) studied this question.