"A true gold mine of information, this book is a mustread for every pianist, and for every music lover. Insight of this kind is priceless." Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Concert Pianist and Distinguished Professor of Piano, Cleveland Institute of Music "Neil Rutman is to be congratulated for his foresight in bringing to pianists, teachers, and aficionados alike a volume of "indispensables of piano playing"- that of interpretive imagery. This book belongs in the hands of everyone who loves the piano." Nancy Lee Harper, EPTA JOURNAL Stories, Images, and Magic from the Piano Literature will stimulate the imagination of pianists as they study and perform the great works of the piano literature. This book brings together for the first time under one cover, for the delight and edification of the musician, a plethora of programmatic, poetic, or imaginative musical images and stories on piano works from the classical literature. Many images originate with the composers themselves, the pens of their acquaintances or contemporaries, while others derive from pianists and authors of distinction from later generations, as well as from translations of poetry on which a piano work is based.