Colin Clarke, offers a second Fanfare Magazine review for Carol Rosenberger‘s To Play Again Memoir:
“Reviewing Carol Rosenberger’s valuable two-disc set of Szymanowski for Fanfare recently, I found the interpretations intriguing and often beautiful. This book provides the background: the story of Rosenberger’s valiant battle with polio and her triumphant, heard-won return to piano proficiency and, indeed, excellence.
Rosenberger’s style of writing is instantly accessible. This is quite a long book, but does not take that long to read as Rosenberger’s prose is chatty, intimate and often confessional; one often feels as if Rosenberger is confiding directly to the reader her innermost thoughts and fears. We, the readers, feel lucky to be granted access to the trials and tribulations, the struggles, the highs and lows of an infinitely frustrating struggle with polio that must have felt it would never end. Along the way is a collection of anecdotes that will delight and amuse; plus the ongoing narration is peppered with detours to treasured memories.…
The sheer honesty of Rosenberger’s writing is breath-taking, the pain held within her experiences, both physical and emotional, always palpable, yet never self-pitying…we trace a remarkable pianist’s Winterreise through illness and beyond.…
It is highly pertinent that some space is given to Rosenberger’s discovery of Szymanowski, given those recordings’ recent re-release; it appears the 22 Mazurkas were recorded in one mammoth five-hour session, the path to that session chronicled in loving detail in the book.
But what matters is the sheer humanity of Rosenberger, and her immense courage. … The book closes with a selection of press quotes on Delos recordings and, most useful of all, a Carol Rosenberger discography.”
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